Method and apparatus for transmitting and receiving signal in mobile communication system

ABSTRACT

The present disclosure proposes a method performed at a network node for scheduling downlink transmissions and a corresponding network node. The method includes determining, based on a number of transport blocks (TBs) scheduled in a downlink transmission to be transmitted and a maximum number of coding block groups (CBGs) dividable in the downlink transmission, a maximum number of CBGs dividable in each TB of the downlink transmission; determining a CBG configuration of CBGs scheduled in a corresponding TB based on a maximum number of CBGs dividable in each TB of the downlink transmission; and transmitting downlink control signaling indicating the CBG configuration. In addition, the present disclosure also proposes a method performed at a user equipment (UE) for feedback Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request Acknowledgment (HARQ-ACK), and a corresponding user equipment, and a communication system including the network node and user equipment.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present disclosure relates to the field of mobile communications technologies, and more particularly to a downlink transmission scheduling method and a corresponding network node, a Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request-Acknowledgment (HARQ-ACK) feedback method and a corresponding user equipment, a computer readable storage medium and a communication system including the network node and the user equipment.

BACKGROUND ART

To meet the demand for wireless data traffic having increased since deployment of 4th generation (4G) communication systems, efforts have been made to develop an improved 5th generation (5G) or pre-5G communication system. The 5G or pre-5G communication system is also called a ‘beyond 4G network’ or a ‘post long term evolution (LTE) system’. The 5G communication system is considered to be implemented in higher frequency (mmWave) bands, e.g., 60 GHz bands, so as to accomplish higher data rates. To decrease propagation loss of the radio waves and increase the transmission distance, beamforming, massive multiple-input multiple-output(MIMO), full dimensional MIMO (FD-MIMO), array antenna, analog beamforming, and large scale antenna techniques are discussed with respect to 5G communication systems. In addition, in 5G communication systems, development for system network improvement is under way based on advanced small cells, cloud radio access networks (RANs), ultra-dense networks, device-to-device (D2D) communication, wireless backhaul, moving network, cooperative communication, coordinated multi-points(CoMP), reception-end interference cancellation and the like. In the 5G system, hybrid frequency shift keying (FSK) and Feher's quadrature amplitude modulation (FQAM) and sliding window superpositioncoding (SWSC) as an advanced coding modulation (ACM), and filter bank multicarrier (FBMC), non-orthogonal multipleaccess (NOMA), and sparse code multipleaccess (SCMA) as an advanced access technology have been developed.

The Internet, which is a humancentered connectivity network where humansgenerate and consume information, is now evolving to the Internet of things (IoT) where distributed entities, suchas things, exchange and process information without humanintervention. The Internet of everything (IoE), which is a combination of the IoT technology and the big data processing technology through connection with a cloud server, has emerged. As technology elements, suchas “sensing technology”, “wired/wireless communication and network infrastructure”, “service interface technology”, and “security technology” have been demanded for IoT implementation, a sensor network, a machine-to-machine (M2M) communication, machine type communication (MTC), and so forth have been recently researched. Suchan IoT environment may provide intelligent Internet technology services that create a new value to humanlife by collecting and analyzing data generated among connected things. IoT may be applied to a variety of fields including smart home, smart building,smart city, smart car or connected cars, smart grid, health care, smart appliances and advanced medical services through convergence and combination between existing information technology (IT) and various industrial applications.

In line with this, various attempts have been made to apply 5G communication systems to IoT networks. For example, technologies suchas a sensor network, MTC, and M2M communication may be implemented by beamforming, MIMO, and array antennas. Application of a cloud RAN as the above-described big data processing technology may also be considered to be as an example of convergence between the 5G technology and the IoT technology.

As described above, various services can be provided according to the development of a wireless communication system, and thus a method for easily providing such-services is required.

DISCLOSURE OF INVENTION Technical Problem

A new solution regarding how to design the downlink scheduling signaling and how to design the HARQ-ACK feedback mechanism to make the uplink and downlink control signaling overhead reasonable without affecting the scheduling flexibility is urgently needed.

Solution to Problem

The present disclosure proposes a method performed at a network node for scheduling downlink transmissions and a corresponding network node. The method includes determining, based on a number of transport blocks (TBs) scheduled in a downlink transmission to be transmitted and a maximum number of coding block groups (CBGs) dividable in the downlink transmission, a maximum number of CBGs dividable in each TB of the downlink transmission; determining a CBG configuration of CBGs scheduled in a corresponding TB based on a maximum number of CBGs dividable in each TB of the downlink transmission; and transmitting downlink control signaling indicating the CBG configuration. In addition, the present disclosure also proposes a method performed at a user equipment (UE) for feedback Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request Acknowledgment (HARQ-ACK), and a corresponding user equipment, and a communication system including the network node and user equipment.

Advantageous Effects of Invention

The solution according to the foregoing embodiment makes the uplink and downlink control signaling overhead reasonable without affecting the scheduling flexibility.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

These and/or other aspects and advantages of the disclosure will be made clear and more readily appreciated from the following description of some of the specific embodiments, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a flow chart illustrating an exemplified method for scheduling a downlink transmission in accordance with an embodiment of the disclosure.

FIG. 2 is a flow chart illustrating an exemplified method for feeding back an HARQ-ACK/NACK according to an embodiment of the disclosure.

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating generation of a virtual CBG and an actual CBG according to one embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating generation of an actual CBG according to another embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram illustrating an HARQ-ACK feedback according to one embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 6 is another schematic diagram illustrating an HARQ-ACK feedback according to one embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 7 is a schematic diagram illustrating an HARQ-ACK feedback according to another embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 8 is another schematic diagram illustrating an HARQ-ACK feedback according to another embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 9 is another schematic diagram illustrating an HARQ-ACK feedback according to another embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 10 is another schematic diagram illustrating an HARQ-ACK feedback according to another embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 11 is another schematic diagram illustrating an HARQ-ACK feedback according to another embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 12 is a block diagram illustrating an exemplified hardware arrangement of an exemplified network node and/or user equipment in accordance with an embodiment of the disclosure.

FIG. 13 is a block diagram illustrating another exemplified hardware arrangement of an exemplified network node and/or user equipment in accordance with an embodiment of the disclosure.

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION

In order to at least partially solve or alleviate the above problems, the embodiments of the present disclosure propose a downlink transmission scheduling method and a network node, a HARQ-ACK feedback method and a user equipment, and corresponding computer-readable storage media and communication systems.

According to a first aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a method performed at a network node for scheduling downlink transmission. The method comprises determining, based on a number of transport blocks (TBs) that can be scheduled in a downlink transmission to be transmitted and a maximum number of coding block groups (CBGs) dividable in the downlink transmission, a maximum number of CBGs dividable in each TB of the downlink transmission; determining a CBG configuration of CBGs scheduled in a corresponding TB based on a maximum number of CBGs dividable in each TB of the downlink transmission; and transmitting downlink control signaling indicating the CBG configuration.

In some embodiments, the maximum number of CBGs dividable in the downlink transmission is configured by higher layer signaling and does not vary with the maximum number of TBs that can be scheduled in the downlink transmission. In some embodiments, the maximum number of TBs that can be scheduled is configured by high-layer signaling. For example, the transmission mode configured by the base station for the case that the number of TBs that can be scheduled is 1 is different from the case that the number of TBs that can be scheduled is 2. The number of TBs that can be scheduled here can be regarded as the maximum number of TBs that can be scheduled. It is easy to see that this number semi-statically changes. For the transmission mode in which the number of TBs that can be scheduled is 2, the number of TBs that can be scheduled in the actual scheduling of the base station may be 1 or 2. In some embodiments, the number of TBs that can be scheduled in the downlink transmission is indicated by physical layer signaling. For example, the base station configures a transmission mode that allows for a maximum of 2 TBs can be scheduled and indicates by physical layer signaling (DCI) whether one or two TBs can be scheduled at a time. The number of TBs that can be scheduled here can be regarded as the number of TBs actually scheduled. It is easy to see that this is a dynamic process. Note that for scheduling in special cases, suchas scheduling of DCI lA for fall back in an LTE system, how to determine the number of CBGs does not fall within the scope of the present invention. For the fallback case, the TB-based scheduling is used instead of subdividingthe TB into CBGs.

In some embodiments, determining, based on a number of transport blocks (TBs) that can be scheduled in a downlink transmission to be transmitted and a maximum number of coding block groups (CBGs) dividable in the downlink transmission, a maximum number of CBGs dividable in each TB of the downlink transmission comprises at least one of the following: if the downlink transmission can schedules only one TB, determining the maximum number of CBGs dividable in the one TB as equal to the maximum number of CBGs dividable in the downlink transmission; if the downlink transmission actually schedules one TB, determining the maximum number of CBGs dividable in the one TB as equal to the maximum number of CBGs dividable in the downlink transmission; if the downlink transmission actually schedules one TB which is an initial transmission, determining the maximum number of CBGs dividable in the one TB as equal to the maximum number of CBGs dividable in the downlink transmission, and the maximum number of CBGs that can be split in the TB at a retransmission of the TB remains unchanged; if the downlink transmission is capable of scheduling two TBs, determining the maximum numbers of dividable CBGs of the two TBs respectively so that the sum of the maximum numbers of dividable CBGs of the two TBs equals to the maximum number of CBGs dividable in the downlink transmission and the maximum numbers of dividable CBGs of the two TBs are equal to each other or different by one; if the downlink transmission actually schedules two TBs, determining the maximum numbers of dividable CBGs of the two TBs respectively so that the sum of the maximum numbers of dividable CBGs of the two TBs equals to the maximum number of CBGs dividable in the downlink transmission and the maximum numbers of dividable CBGs of the two TBs are equal to each other or different by one; if the downlink transmission is capable of scheduling two TBs, determining the maximum numbers of dividable CBGs of the two TBs respectively so that the sum of the maximum numbers of dividable CBGs of the two TBs equals to the maximum number of CBGs dividable in the downlink transmission and the maximum numbers of dividable CBGs of the two TBs are equal to each other or different by one, and if only one of the TBs is scheduled by the downlink transmission in retransmitting the two TBs, the maximum numbers of dividable CBGs of the one TB is the same as the maximum numbers of dividable CBGs of the TB when scheduling 2 TBs simultaneously.

In some embodiments, determining a CBG configuration of CBGs scheduled in a corresponding TB based on a maximum number of CBGs dividable in each TB of the downlink transmission comprises: determining a CBG configuration of CBGs that may be scheduled in the respective TB s suchthat the number of CBGs scheduled in the respective TBs is less than or equal to the maximum number of dividable CBGs in the respective TBs. Determining a CBG configuration of CBGs scheduled in a corresponding TB based on a maximum number of CBGs dividable in each TB of the downlink transmission comprises: for each TB, determining, based on the maximum number of dividable CBGs in the downlink transmission, the maximum number of virtual CBGs for the corresponding TB; determining the number of virtual CBGs for the corresponding TB based on the size of the corresponding TB and the maximum number of virtual CBGs for the corresponding TB; and mapping the virtual CBGs to the actual CBGs to determine the configuration so that the number of actual CBGs does not exceed the maximum number of dividable CBGs in the corresponding TB. In some embodiments, determining a CBG configuration of CBGs scheduled in a corresponding TB based on a maximum number of CBGs dividable in each TB of the downlink transmission comprises: for each TB, determining the number of CBGs that are actually schedule based on a size of the corresponding TB and a maximum number of CBGs dividable in the corresponding TB, so as to determine the CBG configuration. In some embodiments, the downlink control signaling indicating the CBG configuration comprises at least one of: an independent field for each CBG to indicate whether the corresponding CBG is scheduled; an independent field for each CBG to indicate if a Hybrid Automatic Repeat reQuest HARQ bufferfor the corresponding CBG needs to be cleared; an independent field for a plurality of CBGs to indicate if a hybrid automatic repeat request HARQ bufferfor the corresponding CBGs needs to be cleared; a first type of downlink assignment index DAI; and a second type of DAI. In some embodiments, the first type of downlink assignment index DAI indicates one of the following: a sum of the number of CBGs scheduled in the HARQ-ACK feedback bundlingwindow up to the currentlyscheduled downlink time unit and the currentcarrier; a sum of the number of CBGs scheduled in the HARQ-ACK feedback bundlingwindow up to the currentlyscheduled downlink time unit and/or the latest downlink time unit and/or carrier before the currentcarrier plus one; a sum of the maximum number of CBGs of the scheduled downlink time unit and/or the downlink carrier in the HARQ-ACK feedback bundlingwindow up to the currentlyscheduled downlink time unit and the currentcarrier; and a sum of the maximum number of CBGs of the scheduled downlink time unit and/or the downlink carrier in the HARQ-ACK feedback bundlingwindow up to the currentlyscheduled downlink time unit and/or the latest downlink time unit and/or carrier before the currentcarrier plus one. In some embodiments, the second type of DAI indicates one of the following: a total number of bits of HARQ-ACK codebook; a total number of scheduled CBGs of all scheduled carriers from a first downlink time unit among all scheduled downlink time units to the current downlink time unit in the HARQ-ACK feedback bundlingwindow; and a total number of the maximum numbers of CBGs of all scheduled carriers from a first downlink time unit among all scheduled downlink time units to the current downlink time unit in the HARQ-ACK feedback bundlingwindow. In some embodiments, the downlink transmission is a Physical Downlink Shared Channel (PDSCH) transmission.

According to a second aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a network node for scheduling downlink transmission. The network node comprises a coding block group maximum number determining unit configured to determine, based on a number of transport blocks (TBs) that can be scheduled in a downlink transmission to be transmitted and a maximum number of coding block groups (CBGs) dividable in the downlink transmission, a maximum number of CBGs dividable in each TB of the downlink transmission; a CBG configuration determining unit configured to determine a CBG configuration of CBGs scheduled in a corresponding TB based on a maximum number of CBGs dividable in each TB of the downlink transmission; and a control signaling transmitting unit configured to transmit downlink control signaling indicating the CBG configuration.

According to a third aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a network node for scheduling downlink transmission. The network node comprises a processor, a memory with instructions stored there in, which when executed by the processor, causes the processor to: determine, based on a number of transport blocks (TBs) that can be scheduled in a downlink transmission to be transmitted and a maximum number of coding block groups (CBGs) dividable in the downlink transmission, a maximum number of CBGs dividable in each TB of the downlink transmission; determine a CBG configuration of CBGs scheduled in a corresponding TB based on a maximum number of CBGs dividable in each TB of the downlink transmission; and transmit downlink control signaling indicating the CBG configuration

According to a fourth aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a computer readable storing medium with instructions stored in, which when executed by a processor, causes the processor to implement the method according to the first aspect of the present disclosure.

According to a fifth aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided method performed at a user equipment (UE) for reporting a Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request Acknowledgment HARQ-ACK. The method comprises receiving downlink control signaling; generating an HARQ-ACK codebook according to the downlink control signaling, a reference transport block in a downlink transmission corresponding to the downlink control signaling, and a decoding result for the downlink transmission; and transmitting a HARQ-ACK corresponding to the downlink transmission according to the generated HARQ-ACK codebook.

In some embodiments, the downlink control signaling is a downlink control indicator DCI and/or higher layer signaling received from a network node. In some embodiments, the downlink control signaling comprises at least one of the following: a first type of downlink assignment index DAI; a second type of DAI; information used to determine the number of transport blocks based on which the HARQ-ACK is fed back; the maximum number of dividable coding block groups (CBGs) in the transport block (TB); and information regarding whether the HARQ-ACK feedback performs a spatial dimension bundling. In some embodiments, in the same uplink transmission, in the case that the number of transport blocks with at least one carrier that can be scheduled to feedback a HARQ-ACK is greater than 1: if the downlink control signaling indicates that no spatial dimension bundlingis performed, the number of transport blocks based on which the HARQ-ACK is fed back is equal to 2; if the downlink control signaling indicates that a spatial dimension bundlingis performed, the number of transport blocks based on which the HARQ-ACK is fed back is equal to 1. In some embodiments, a bit length of the ACK/NACK for the downlink transmission is: a product of the maximum number of CBGs divisible in a TB and the number of transport blocks based on which the HARQ-ACK is fed back; a product of a number of CBGs actually scheduled by the reference transport block and the number of transport blocks based on which the HARQ-ACK is fed back. In some embodiments, the reference transport block is a transport block with a maximum number of CBGs actually scheduled. In some embodiments, generating an HARQ-ACK codebook according to the downlink control signaling, a reference transport block in a downlink transmission corresponding to the downlink control signaling, and a decoding result for the downlink transmission comprises: according to a second type of DAI of the downlink control signaling, determining a bit length of the HARQ-ACK codebook as a product of the value of the second type of DAI and the number of transport blocks based on which the HARQ-ACK is fed back. In some embodiments, generating an HARQ-ACK codebook according to the downlink control signaling, a reference transport block in a downlink transmission corresponding to the downlink control signaling, and a decoding result for the downlink transmission comprises: determining, according to a first type of DAI of the downlink control signaling, a start point of a bit position of ACK/NACK of the downlink transmission in the HARQ-ACK codebook. In some embodiments, determining, according to a first type of DAI of the downlink control signaling, a start point of a bit position of ACK/NACK of the downlink transmission in the HARQ-ACK codebook comprises one of: determining a start point of a bit position of the ACK/NACK of the downlink transmission in the HARQ-ACK codebook as a first type of DAI of the downlink control signaling; determining a start point of a bit position of the ACK/NACK of the downlink transmission in the HARQ-ACK codebook as a first type of DAI of the downlink control signaling minus a bit length of the ACK/NACK of the downlink transmission plus 1; determining a start point of a bit position of the ACK/NACK of the downlink transmission in the HARQ-ACK codebook as a product of a first type of DAI of the downlink control signaling and the number of transport blocks based on which the HARQ-ACK is fed back minus one; and determining a start point of a bit position of the ACK/NACK of the downlink transmission in the HARQ-ACK codebook as a product of a first type of DAI of the downlink control signaling and the number of transport blocks based on which the HARQ-ACK is fed back minus a bit length of the ACK/NACK of the downlink transmission plus 1. In some embodiments, generating an HARQ-ACK codebook according to the downlink control signaling, a reference transport block in a downlink transmission corresponding to the downlink control signaling, and a decoding result for the downlink transmission comprises determining the bit length of ACK/NACK of the downlink transmission as a product of the maximum number of dividable CBGs in a TB and the number of transport blocks based on which the HARQ-ACK is fed back, wherein ACK/NACKs of scheduled CBG in scheduled TBs are generated according to CRC checksums of the actually scheduled CBGs, and ACK/NACKs of the unscheduled CBGs are dummybits, and wherein the ACK/NACK of the unscheduled TBs are dummybits. In some embodiment, generating an HARQ-ACK codebook according to the downlink control signaling, a reference transport block in a downlink transmission corresponding to the downlink control signaling, and a decoding result for the downlink transmission comprises: determine bit length of ACK/NACK of the downlink transmission as a product of a number of CBGs actually scheduled by the reference transmission block and the number of transmission blocks based on which the HARQ-ACK is fed back, wherein an ACK/NACK of the reference transmission block is generated according to a CRC checksum of the actually scheduled CBGs, and wherein an ACK/NACK of a non-reference transport block is generated according to a CRC checksum of CBGs actually scheduled by the non-reference transport block, and an extra dummy bit is generated suchthat the bit length of the ACK/NACK of the non-reference transport block is equal to the number of CBGs actually scheduled by the reference transport block. In some embodiments, generating an HARQ-ACK codebook according to the downlink control signaling, a reference transport block in a downlink transmission corresponding to the downlink control signaling, and a decoding result for the downlink transmission comprises: determining the bit length of ACK/NACK bit of the downlink transmission as the maximum number of CBGs dividable by the TB when the downlink control signaling indicates a spatial dimension bundling,wherein the ACK/ NACKs are obtained by logically ANDing ACK/NACKs of CBGs scheduled in respective TBs and having the same CBG index. In some embodiments, generating an HARQ-ACK codebook according to the downlink control signaling, a reference transport block in a downlink transmission corresponding to the downlink control signaling, and a decoding result for the downlink transmission comprises: if all CBGs of one TB are scheduled by the downlink transmission, in the case where it is determined that all CBGs of the TB are correctly detected by CRC checksums for each CBG: a NACK value for each of CBGs of the TB is generated if the TB is not correctly detected by a CRC checksum for the TB, and a ACK value for each of CBGs of the TB is generated if the TB is correctly detected by a CRC checksum for the TB. In some embodiments, generating an HARQ-ACK codebook according to the downlink control signaling, a reference transport block in a downlink transmission corresponding to the downlink control signaling, and a decoding result for the downlink transmission comprises: if current downlink transmission does not include all the CBGs of one TB and all CBGs of the TB are correctly detected by CRC checksums for each CBG up to the currentscheduling time butthe TB is not correctly detected by a CRC checksum, the ACK/NACK is generated as at least one of the following: a NACK value for each of CBGs of the TB is generated; and a NACK value for each unscheduledCBGs in the currentscheduling for which ACKs were previously fed back is generated; a ACK/NACK value opposite to a value of a predefined dummybit for each of the unscheduled CBGs in the current scheduling for which ACKs were previously fed back are is generated. In some embodiments, generating an HARQ-ACK codebook according to the downlink control signaling, a reference transport block in a downlink transmission corresponding to the downlink control signaling, and a decoding result for the downlink transmission comprises: feeding back not only ACK/NACKs of the divided CBGs for the downlink transmission butalso an HARQ-ACK of a corresponding TB for the downlink transmission. In some embodiments, the downlink transmission is physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) transmission.

According to a sixth aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a user equipment (UE) for feeding back a Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request Acknowledgment HARQ-ACK. The UE comprises: a control signaling receiving unit configured to receive downlink control signaling; a codebook generating unit configured to generate an HARQ-ACK code according to the downlink control signaling, a reference transport block in a downlink transmission corresponding to the downlink control signaling, and a decoding result for the downlink transmission; and a feeding back unit configured to feed a HARQ-ACK corresponding to the downlink transmission back according to the generated HARQ-ACK codebook.

According to a seventh aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a user equipment (UE) for feeding back a Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request Acknowledgment HARQ-ACK. The UE comprises: a processor, a memory with instructions stored there in, which when executed by the processor, causes the processor to: generate an HARQ-ACK code according to the downlink control signaling, a reference transport block in a downlink transmission corresponding to the downlink control signaling, and a decoding result for the downlink transmission; and feed a HARQ-ACK corresponding to the downlink transmission back according to the generated HARQ-ACK codebook.

According to an eighth aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a computer readable storing medium with instructions stored in, which when executed by a processor, causes the processor to implement the method according to the fifth aspect of the present disclosure.

According to an eighth aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a communication system. The communication system comprises a network node according to the second or third aspect of the present disclosure and one or more UEs according to the sixth or seventh aspect of the present disclosure.

With the solutions according to the embodiments of the present disclosure, it is possible to effectively reduce the HARQ-ACK feedback overhead when using a CBG transmission and to prevent the base station (network node) and the UE from misunderstanding the size of the HARQ-ACK codebook (sometimes called codebook). Particularly when both a CBG transmission and a MIMO mode are used, the embodiments of the present disclosure effectively reduce the overhead of the downlink control channel and the uplink channel carrying the HARQ-ACK feedback.

MODE FOR THE INVENTION

The preferred embodiments of the present disclosure will be described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings, omitting details and functions that are not necessary for the present disclosure in the course of the description so as to avoid obscuring the understanding of the present disclosure. The following description of various embodiments used to describe the principles of the present disclosure is provided for the purposeof illustration only and should not be construed in any way to limit the scope of the disclosure. The following description with reference to the accompanying drawings is provided to assist in a comprehensive understanding of exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure as defined by the claims and their equivalents. The following description includes many specific details to assist in that understanding butthese are to be regarded as merely exemplary. Accordingly, one of skilled in the art appreciates that various changes and modifications of the embodiments described herein can be made without departing from the scope and spirit of the present disclosure. In addition, descriptions of well-known functionsand constructions are omitted for clarity and conciseness. Also, the same reference numeralsare used for the same or similar functionsand operations throughout the figures. In addition, all or part of the functions,features, units, modules, and the like described in the different embodiments described below may be combined, deleted and/or modified to constitute new embodiments, and the embodiments are still within the scope of the present disclosure. In addition, the terms “include” and “contain” and their derivatives in this disclosure are intended to be inclusive and not restrictive.

In the following, although various solutions according to the embodiments of the present disclosure are described in detail by taking a “base station (abbreviated as BS)” and a “user equipment (abbreviated as UE)” as an example, the present disclosure is not limited to this. In fact, the present disclosure is applicable to any wireless communication standard that is known or to be developed in the future,including butnot limited to: 2G, 3G, 4G, 5G and the like. For example, a base station may include, butnot be limited to, a base transceiver station (BTS), a radio base station (RBS), a NodeB, an evolved node B (eNodeB), a relay station, a transmission point, and the like. Thus, the term “base station” may be used interchangeably with the generic term “network node”, including the aforementioned items, to indicate that it is a network side node capable of providing the same or similar functionalityas a base station. In addition, in this document, the user equipment may actually include the concepts of (but are not limited to) the following terms: a user device, a mobile station, a mobile terminal, a smart phone, a tablet, and the like.

In order to supportmore flexible scheduling, 3GPP decides to supportvariable HARQ-ACK feedback delay in the 5G. In 5G systems, whether FDD (Frequency Division Duplex)or TDD (Time Division Duplexor Time Division Duplex)systems, for a specific downlink (sometimes referred to herein as “down”) time unit (sometimes also referred to as a time resource, e.g., a downlink slot or a downlink mini-slot), the uplink (sometimes referred to herein simply as “up”)time units that may be used to a HARQ-ACK feedback are variable. For example, the delay of a HARQ-ACK feedback may be dynamically indicated by physical layer signaling, and different HARQ-ACK delays may also be determined according to factors suchas different services or user equipment capabilities. Therefore, even in the FDD system, HARQ-ACKs for downlink data transmission of multipledownlink time units may be fed back in one uplink time unit.

In addition, considering that the size of a transport block (Transport Block or abbreviated as TB) in a 5G system may furtherincrease, and in order to better supportthe coexistence of different service types, for example, puncturingpart of PDSCH (Physical Downlink Shared Channel) of the eMBB (Enhanced Mobile Broadband) Service for sending URLLC (ultra-reliableand low latency communication), 3GPP decides to furtherrefine the granularity of scheduling in 5G, extends schedulingin TB unit in LTE to scheduling in Code Block (abbreviated as CB)/Code Block Group (CB Group or abbreviated as CBG) unit. The scheduling in CB/CBG unit is mainly used for retransmission.

5G systems still supportMlMO (Multiple Input MultipleOutput) transmission. When operating in a MIMO transmission mode, multipleTBs may be scheduled simultaneously on one downlink time unit of one carrier. For example, for an initial transmission, only 1 TB is scheduled when the number of layers for MIMO transmission is less than or equal to four. When the number of layers is greater than 4, 2 TBs are scheduled. Or for retransmissions, 2 TBs may be scheduled even if the number of layers is less than or equal to 4. Of course, the number of TBs actually scheduled by the base station at each time is dynamically variable.

In addition, 5G still supportscarrier aggregation in order to utilize various spectrum resources flexibly. That is, the base station may configure multiplecarriers for one UE (User Equipment or User Equipment). It can be easily seen that in the 5G system, dimensions are increased compared to LTE in terms of either downlink scheduling or uplink feedback HARQ-ACK.

An exemplified method for scheduling a downlink transmission according to an embodiment of the present disclosure will be described in detail below first in conjunction with FIG. 1 and other figures. FIG. 1 is a flowchart illustrating an exemplified method 100 for scheduling a downlink transmission according to an embodiment of the disclosure.

In the embodiment shown in FIG. 1, prior to the start point of the method 100, the base station may generally configure whether a scheduling mode of a carrier (e.g., carrier Ci below) is a TB-based scheduling or a CBG-based scheduling. If it is configured as a CBG-based scheduling, the base station may also configure the maximum number of schedulable CBGs, for example, set as Nmax_CBG. When configuring the value, the base station can explicitly configure it as the maximum number of schedulable CBGs. In addition, in other embodiments, the maximum number of schedulable CBGs may also be indicated implicitly by configuring the maximum number of the HARQ-ACK bits that can be fed back for each scheduling. For ease of description, it is described in terms of the maximum number of schedulable CBGs. However, those skilled in the art will understand that the present disclosure is not limited thereto. In addition, in some embodiments, the base station may furtherconfigure whether a HARQ-ACK feedback mode of a UE with which it is associated is based on a TB-based or a CBG-based granularity.

Unless otherwise specified, the present invention does not limit how a base station specifically divides one TB into multipleCBs, and furtherhow combines multipleCBs into CBGs. For example, the base station determines, according to the size of the TB, how many CBs to divide and then determines how many CBGs to combine according to Nmax_CBG.

In some embodiments, the signaling for configuring the HARQ-ACK feedback mode may be the same as the signaling for configuring the carrier scheduling mode. For example, if the scheduling mode of carrier Ci is configured to be based on TB, the HARQ-ACK feedback may also be implicitly configured to be based on TB. Alternatively, in some other embodiments, the signaling used to configure the HARQ-ACK feedback mode may be independent from the signaling used to configure the carrier scheduling mode. For example, the scheduling mode of carrier Ci may be configured to be based on TB, butthe HARQ-ACK feedback is configured to be based on CBG. In addition, in some embodiments, all or part of the above configuration information may be semi-statically configured by high-layer signaling. It is shall be noted that if it is configured as a CBG based scheduling/feedback mode, the base station may explicitly indicate scheduling information of each CBG in the downlink control signaling DCI, may also implicitly indicate it, and the UE may determine which CBGs are scheduled by a predefined criterion. The present disclosure does not make particular limit on this.

In addition, in some embodiments, the base station may furtherconfigure a MIMO transmission mode (which may also be referred to as a MIMO scheduling mode in some cases). For example, the transmission between the base station and the UE may be configured as a SIMO (Single-Input Multiple-Output)or MIMO transmission mode, butthe number of layers of MIMO is not limited. In addition, in some embodiments, the transmission between the base station and the UE may also be configured to a transmission mode that transmits at most one TB or two TBs.

In some embodiments, the base station may configure the maximum number of schedulable CBGs Nmax_CBG for one schedule. If multipleTBs are scheduled in one schedule, a total number of scheduled CBGs in all TBs does not exceed Nmax_CBG. If only one TB is scheduled in one schedule, a total number of scheduled CBGs for that TB usually does not exceed Nmax_CBG.

In other embodiments, the base station may configure the maximum number of schedulable CBGs Nmax_CBG for one TB in one schedule, so that the total number of CBGs scheduled for one TB does not exceed Nmax_CBG. In this case, if 2 TBs are scheduled in one schedule, a total number of CBGs scheduled in 2 TBs does not exceed 2*Nmax_CBG. Therefore, the base station may configure whether the maximum number of CBGs Nmax CBG is the total number of CBGs in one schedule or the total number of CBGs of one TB in one schedule. In some embodiments, the information related to the configuration may be semi-statically configured by high-level signaling.

In some embodiments, the maximum number of CBGs Nmax_CBG can be defined in the standard as the total number of CBGs in one schedule. In other embodiments, the maximum number of CBGs Nmax CBG can be defined in the standard as the total number of CBGs for one TB in one schedule.

Next, an exemplified method 100 of scheduling a downlink transmission according to an embodiment of the present disclosure will be described in detail in conjunction with steps S110 to S130 shown in FIG. 1.

As shown in FIG. 1, the method 100 may begin with step 5110. In step 5110, the base station may determine, according to the number of transport blocks (TBs) that can be scheduled in the downlink transmission to be transmitted to the UE and the maximum number of dividable coding block groups (CBGs) in the downlink transmission, the maximum number of CBGs dividable in each TB of the downlink transmission.

In some embodiments, if the scheduling mode of a carrier (e.g., carrier Ci) is configured by the base station as a CBG based scheduling as described above, the base station may determine, based on the configured maximum number of TBs that can be scheduled and the maximum number of CBGs Nmax_CBG determined as above, the maximum number of CBGs that can be scheduled in each TB, Nmax_CBG_TBi. In step S110, the base station may determine the maximum number of CBGs Nmax_CBG_TBi that can be actually scheduled in each TB according to the maximum number of TBs that can be scheduled NTB and/or a predefined criterion. In some embodiments, the predefined criterion may be:

Nmax_CBG_TBi=Nmax_CBG/NTB.

In some embodiments, if the scheduling mode of a carrier (e.g., carrier Ci) is configured by the base station as a CBG based scheduling as described above, the base station may determine, based on the number of TB s that are actually scheduled and the maximum number of CBGs Nmax_CBG determined as above, the maximum number of CBGs that can be scheduled in each TB, Nmax_CBG_TBi.

In some embodiments, in step S110, if the maximum number of dividable coded block groups (CBGs) in the downlink transmission, Nmax_CBG, is the total number of CBGs in one schedule, the base station may determine the maximum number of CBGs Nmax_CBG_TBi that can be actually scheduled in each TB according to the maximum number of TBs that can be scheduled NTB and/or a predefined criterion. In some embodiments, the predefined criterion may be:

Nmax_CBG_TBi=Nmax_CBG/NTB.

If Nmax_CBG is not an integer multipleof NTB, Nmax_CBG may be divided into NTB TBs in some embodiments as far as possible in accordance with the principle of equal division. For example, if Nmax_CBG=5 and NTB=2, Nmax CBG_TB1 of the first TB may be 2 and Nmax_CBG_TB2 of the second TB may be 3 or Nmax_CBG_TB1 of the first TB may be 3 and Nmax_CBG_TB2 of the second TB may be 2.

Next, as shown in FIG. 1, the method 100 may proceed to step S120. In step S120, the base station may determine the CBG configuration of the CBG scheduled in a corresponding TB based on the maximum number of dividable CBGs in each TB of the downlink transmission.

In some embodiments, in order to determine the configuration of the actually schedulable CBGs, it can be implemented in at least the following two manners. Alternatively, the configuration of CBGs for each TB is determined in other methods depending on the size of the TB, and Nmax_CBG_TBi.

1st CBG Configuration

In some embodiments, for each TB, the base station may determine the maximum number of virtual CBG Nvirtual_max_CBG_TBi of the corresponding TB by Nmax_CBG. For example, let Nvirtual_max_CBG_TBi=Nmax_CBG. Then, the base station may determine the number of scheduled virtual CBGs Nvirtual_CBG_TBi according to the TB size and Nvirtual_max_CBG_TBi. Next, the base station may map the virtual CBG to the actual CBG in a predefined manner so that the number of CBGs that can be actually scheduled does not exceed the maximum number of CBGs Nmax_CBG_TBi that can be actually scheduled in the corresponding TB. In this way, the CBG configuration in each TB can be determined.

For example, as shown in the lower part of FIG. 3, if Nmax_CBG=4, the base station schedules 2 TBs, TBa and TBb in this scheduling, and thus Nmax_CBG_TBi=2 as described above. Taking TBa as an example, Nvirtual_max_CBG_TBa=4 and Nmax_CBG_TBa=2. It is assumed that the size of TBa is 50000 and can be divided into six CBs and divided into four virtual CBGs. The first and second CBs constitute a first virtual CBG, the third and fourth CBs constitute a second virtual CBG, the fifth CB constitutes the third virtual CBG, and the sixth CB constitutes the fourth virtual CBG. The four virtual CBGs can be mapped into two actual CBGs. Then, the first and second virtual CBGs can be mapped to the first actual CBG, and the third and fourth virtual CBGs can be mapped to the second actual CBGs. In addition, as will be understood by those skilled in the art, the above example is only an example for helping the reader to understand, and does not exclude that there may be other predefined ways to map 4 virtual CBGs into 2 actual CBGs. For example, the first and third virtual CBGs may be mapped to the first actual CBG, and the second and fourth virtual CBGs may be mapped to the second actual CBGs.

In addition, as shown in the upper part of FIG. 3, if only one TBa is scheduled by the base station in this scheduling, Nmax_CBG_TBi=4. In this case, 4 virtual CBGs may correspond to 4 actual CBGs.

2nd CBG Configuration

In other embodiments, for each TB, the base station may determine the number of actually scheduled CBGs based on the size of the corresponding TB and the maximum number of CBGs Nmax_CBG_TBi that can be actually scheduled.

For example, as shown on the right of FIG. 4, if Nmax_CBG=4, in this scheduling, the base station schedules 2 TBs, TBa and TBb, and therefore Nmax_CBG_TBi=2. Taking TBa as an example, assuming that the size of TBa is 50000 and can be divided into 6 CBs, the number of actually scheduled CBGs is 2 (because the number of CBs>1). The first, second, and third CBs constitute the first actual CBG, and the fourth, fifth and sixth CBs constitute the second actual CBG.

For another example, as shown on the left of FIG. 4, if only one TB is scheduled by the base station in this scheduling, the first and second CBs constitute the first actual CBG, the third and fourth CBs constitute the second actual CBG, the fifth CB constitutes the third actual CBG, and the sixth CB constitutes the fourth actual CBG.

From the above description, it can be seen that “2nd CBG Configuration” is simpler in implementation, but“1st CBG Configuration” is more robust in the event that a UE misses a DCI, and in some cases it may also improve the efficiency of retransmission, given below are some examples.

In some embodiments, the number of TBs scheduled by the base station each time may be different, butNmax_CBG_TBi does not change with the number of actually scheduled TBs. For example, the maximum number of TBs that can be scheduled by the base station by high layer signaling is NTB=2. If only one TB is scheduled in the current downlink transmission, for the TB, Nmax_CBG_TBi=Nmax_CBG/2 instead of Nmax_CBG_TBi=Nmax_CBG.

In some embodiments, the number of TBs scheduled by the base station each time may be different. For example, the base station may determine Nmax_CBG_TBi according to the number of TBs actually scheduled for the transmission. Therefore, Nmax_CBG_TBi for each scheduling may be the same or different for different TBs. For the same TB, in one implementation, Nmax_CBG_TBi is determined on the basis of the number of TBs of the transmission at retransmission and initial transmission (initial transmission) or at different times of retransmission. Alternatively, for the same TB, Nmax_CBG_TBi remains unchanged and is determined based on the number of TBs at the initial transmission of the TB for retransmissions and initial transmissions (initial transmissions), or for different times of retransmission.

For example, the base station schedules two TBs, TBa and TBb, which are initial transmissions. At this time, Nmax_CBG_TBa=Nmax_CBG_TBb=2. If TBb is successfullytransmitted, butTBa transmission fails, the base station schedules only TBa in retransmission. In this case, Nmax_CBG_TBa=4.

According to the 1st CBG configuration, Nmax_CBG_TBa=2 when the base station schedules the initially transmitted TBa, where CB1˜4 are actually scheduled CBG1, and CB5˜6 are actually scheduled CBG2. Assuming that the UE fails to demodulate the CBG2 butsuccessfullydemodulates the CBG1, the base station schedules CBs 5 to 6 when scheduling the retransmission of the TBa. At this point Nmax_CBG_TBa=4. Then the base station indicates the CBGs scheduled at this time to be CBG3 and CBG4, that is, CBs 5˜6.

According to the 2nd CBG configuration, when the base station schedules an initially transmitted TBa, Nmax_CBG_TBa=2, where CB1˜3 are actually scheduled CBG1 and CB4˜6 are actually scheduled CBG2. Assuming that the UE fails to demodulate the CBG2 butsuccessfullydemodulates the CBG1, the base station schedules the CBs 4 to 6 when scheduling retransmission of the TBa. At this point Nmax_CBG_TBa=4. CBGs are regrouped, that is, the first and second CBs constitute the first CBG, the third and fourth CBs constitute the second CBG, the fifth CB constitutes the third CBG, and the sixth CB constitutes the fourth CBG. In order to retransmit CB4˜6, the base station indicates the CBG scheduled at this time to be CBG2, 3 and 4, that is, CB3˜6.

For another example, the base station schedules 1 TB, TBa, which is the initial transmission. At this time, Nmax_CBG_TBa=4. If TBa transmission fails, the base station schedules to retransmit the TB and schedules an initially transmitted TBb. At this time, Nmax_CBG_TBa=Nmax_CBG_TBb=2.

According to the 1st CBG configuration, when the base station schedules the initially transmitted TBa, Nmax_CBG_TBa=4, where the first and second CBs constitute the first actually scheduled CBG, the third and fourth CB s constitute the second actually scheduled CBG, the fifth CB constitutes the third actually scheduled CBG, and the sixth CB constitutes the fourth actually scheduled CBG. It is assumed that the UE fails to demodulate CBG2, butsuccessfullydemodulates CBG1, 3, 4. The base station schedules CB3˜4 when scheduling to retransmit TBa. At this point Nmax_CBG_TBa=2. Then the base station indicates that the CBG scheduled at this time is CBG1, that is, CB1˜4.

According to the 2nd CBG configuration, when a base station schedules an initially transmitted TBa, Nmax_CBG_TBa=4, where the first and second CBs constitute the first actually scheduled CBG, the third and fourth CB s constitute the second actually scheduled CBG, the fifth CB constitutes the third actually scheduled CBG, and the sixth CB constitutes the fourth actually scheduled CBG. It is assumed that the UE fails to demodulate CBG2, butsuccessfullydemodulates CBG1, 3, 4. When base station schedules to retransmit TBa, CB3˜4 are scheduled. At this point Nmax_CBG_TBa=2. The CBGs are regrouped, that is, the first, second, third CBs constitute the first CBG, and the fourth, fifth, sixth CBs constitute the second CBG. In order to retransmit CB3˜4, the base station instructs the CBGs scheduled at this time to be CBG1 and CBG2, that is, all CBs.

For example, the base station schedules two TBs, TBa and TBb, which are initial transmissions. At this time, Nmax_CBG_TBa=Nmax_CBG_TBb=2. If all CBGs of TBb are successfullytransmitted, butpart of CBGs of TBa are unsuccessfully transmitted, only the TBa will be scheduled when the base station schedules retransmission. In this case, Nmax_CBG_TBa=2.

According to the 2nd CBG configuration, when a base station schedules an initially transmitted TBa, Nmax_CBG_TBa=2, where CB1˜3 constitute actually scheduled CBG1 and CB4˜6 constitute actually scheduled CBG2. Assuming that the UE fails to demodulate the CBG2 butsuccessfullydemodulates the CBG1, the base station schedules CBs 4 to 6 when scheduling retransmission of the TBa. In this case Nmax_CBG_TBa=2, the base station indicates that the CBG scheduled at this time is CBG2.

For another example, the base station schedules 2 TBs, TBa and TBb, where both TBa and TBb are initial transmissions. At this time, Nmax_CBG_TBa=Nmax_CBG_TBb=2. If all CBGs of TBb are successfullytransmitted, butpart of CBGs of TBa is unsuccessfully transmitted, the base station may schedule retransmission of the part of TBa and a new transmission of TBc when scheduling retransmission. In this case, Nmax_CBG_TBa=Nmax CBG TBc=2.

It is shall be noted that it may happen that the UE missed the DCI scheduling the initial transmission of a certain TB and cannot determine Nmax_CBG_TBi at the initial transmission. The base station can avoid this confusion by scheduling. For example, the last transmission is a transmission of 2 TBs. If the base station can determine that the received HARQ-ACK corresponding to the previous transmission is DTX/DTX, the base station schedules these two TBs again when scheduling the next time. If the last transmission is a transmission of 2 TBs, and if the base station can determine that one received HARQ-ACK corresponding to the last transmission was an ACK of a CBG for at least one TB, the base station may schedule only one TB or both TBs simultaneously.

For another example, the base station schedules 1 TB, TBa, which is an initial transmission. At this time, Nmax_CBG_TBa=4. If TBa is unsuccessfully transmitted, the base station schedules retransmission of this TB. One way to avoid an increase in the number of bits of HARQ-ACK feedback caused by scheduling two TBs simultaneously is that the base station cannot schedule other TBs before the TBa is successfullytransmitted. This also avoids the problem that the UE cannot determine the Nmax_CBG_TBa at the initial transmission when the UE misses the DCI scheduling the initial transmission of the TBa butreceives the retransmission of the TBa and the DCI of another TB. Alternatively, the base station may schedule other TBs suchas TBb at the same time and Nmax_CBG_TBa=Nmax_CBG_TBb=4. In order to avoid the increase of HARQ-ACK bits, the UE automaticallybundlesthe CBG dimensions so that the number of HARQ-ACK bits fed back by the two TBs is still 4. Specifically, make reference to the part regarding HARQ-ACK feedback.

More generally, embodiments of the present disclosure do not limit how a base station divides one or more TBs into CBs, and does not limit the specific methods of constituting the virtual CBGs.

Next, the method 100 may proceed to step S130. In step S130, the base station may transmit downlink control signaling indicating the CBG configuration determined in step S120. For example, the base station may generate a DCI including CBG scheduling or configuration information according to the aforementioned manner and send it to the UE over a downlink control channel (e.g., a PDCCH). The DCI including the CBG scheduling or configuration information generated by the base station may be generated in one of the following manners.

In some embodiments, the base station may indicate scheduling information independently for each TB. For example, each TB has an independent MCS (Modulation and Coding Scheme) indication, an RV (Redundancy Version) indication, an NDI (New Data Indicator), and the like. In some embodiments, there may be one NDI for each TB, or each one NDI (or bit information with the same effect) for CBGs of each TB.

In addition, in some embodiments, the base station may indicate scheduling or configuration information for CBGs of each TB, respectively. For example, one or more of the following information may be included:

(1) Each CB/CBG may have an independent bit field (or sometimes a field) for indicating whether the corresponding CB/CBG is scheduled.

Assuming Nmax CBG=4, and this time it is to schedule NTB=2, then Nmax_CBG_TBi=2. For each of the two CBGs for each TB, there is a 1-bit field to indicate whether the base station has scheduled this CBG. In some embodiments, if the 1 bit is toggled relative to a corresponding bit in the initial transmission scheduling the same TB, then this CBG is not scheduled. In some embodiments, this 1 bit does not change with respect to the corresponding bit of the initial transmission scheduling the same TB, indicating that this CBG is scheduled. In some embodiments, the 1 bit indicates that the CBG is scheduled or not scheduled according to a predefined value of 0 or 1.

For the initial transmission, this bit may not be used to indicate whether the corresponding CB/CBG is scheduled, butrather to indicate that this TB is the initial transmission. For example, when all bits of all CBGs of a TB are toggled with respect to this bit in the DCI of the initial transmission of the previous TB scheduling the same HARQ process, it indicates that this TB is the initial transmission, otherwise it indicates a retransmission. That is, for an initial transmission of one TB, each of the bits of the respective CBGs should be the same value, and all bits are toggled with respect to those of the initial transmission of the previous TB scheduling the same HARQ process.

The following describes the scenario where the numbers of TBs are different for the currenttransmission and for the currentinitial transmission:

(a) For example, in the last initial transmission, the base station only scheduled one new TBa with four CBGs. However, in the currenttransmission, the base station schedules two new TBs, TBb and TBc, and there are 2 bits for 2 CBGs of each TB, that is, a total of 4 bits. Assuming that TBa corresponds to TBb (e.g., the HARQ process is the same), 2 bits of TBb are toggled with respect to 4 bits of TBa and 2 bits of TBc are toggled with respect to those of the previous TB of the same HARQ process.

(b) For example, in the last initial transmission, the base station schedules 2 new TBs, TBb and TBc, butin the currenttransmission, the base station only schedules 1 new TBa. Assuming that TBa corresponds to TBb (for example, the HARQ process is the same), in the same way, 4 bits of TBa are toggled with respect to 2 bits of TBb.

In addition, in some embodiments, each CB/CBG has an individual field for indicating whether the corresponding CB/CBG is scheduled if the DCI also contains an NDI for TB, and whether the TB an is initial transmission or a retransmission is indicated by the NDI of the TB.

(2) Each CB/CBG may have an independent field for explicitly indicating whether the corresponding CB/CBG needs to clear the corresponding buffer,or implicitly indicating to the corresponding CB/CBG whether it needs to clear the corresponding bufferby indicating whether the corresponding CB/CBG is destroyed, or each TB uses 1 bit to indicate whether the corresponding CB/CBG scheduled by the same DCI needs to clear the corresponding buffer, or multiple TB s share the same one bit to indicate that whether the CB/CBG scheduled by the same DCI needs to clear the corresponding buffer. By toggling this field relative to the last transmission scheduling the same TB, it can indicate that the CB/CBG is a new CBG or a CBG that may need to clear the buffer,and the untoggled field may indicate that the CB/CBG is a CBG that does not need to clear the buffer.

However, it should be noted that when CBs contained in the currentCBG contains and CBs contained in the CBG transmitted last time are different when the bufferis cleared. For example, CB1˜4 in the bufferis the last transmitted CBG1, and the currenttransmission receives an instruction to clear the bufferof the CB of the CBG2. In this case, the CBG2 only includes CBs 3˜4, and only the buffersof CBs 3˜4 are cleared and the CBs 1˜2 remain in the buffer.On the other hand, if CBs1˜4 in the bufferare the last transmitted CBG1 and CBG2 and the currenttransmission receives an instruction to clear the buffersof the CBs of CBG1 and the CBG1 at this time contains CB1˜4, the buffersof CBs1˜4 need to be cleared.

In addition, in step S130, a downlink assignment index (DAI) may be furtherincluded in the DCI including the CBG scheduling/configuration information generated by the base station. In some embodiments, the DAI may include a first type of DAI and/or a second type of DAI.

The first type of DAI, also known as counter DAI, indicates one of the following:

(1) a sum of the number of CBGs scheduled in the HARQ-ACK feedback bundlingwindow up to the currentlyscheduled downlink time unit (e.g., downlink time unit Ti) and the currentcarrier (e.g., the currentcarrier Ci), or a sum of the number of HARQ-ACK bits to be fed back;

(2) a sum of the number of CBGs scheduled in the HARQ-ACK feedback bundlingwindow up to the currentlyscheduled downlink time unit (e.g., downlink time unit Ti) and/or the latest downlink time unit and/or carrier before the currentcarrier (e.g., the currentcarrier Ci) plusone, or a sum of the number of HARQ-ACK bits to be fed back plus one;

(3) a sum of the maximum number of CBGs of the scheduled downlink time unit and/or the downlink carrier in the HARQ-ACK feedback bundlingwindow up to the currentlyscheduled downlink time unit (e.g., downlink time unit Ti) and the currentcarrier (e.g., the currentcarrier Ci), or a sum of the number of HARQ-ACK bits to be fed back; or

(4) a sum of the maximum number of CBGs of the scheduled downlink time unit and/or the downlink carrier in the HARQ-ACK feedback bundlingwindow up to the currentlyscheduled downlink time unit (e.g., downlink time unit Ti) and/or the latest downlink time unit and/or carrier before the currentcarrier (e.g., the currentcarrier Ci) plus one, or a sum of the number of HARQ-ACK bits to be fed back plus one.

The above HARQ-ACK feedback bundlingwindow is a set of all downlink time units and/or a set of all carriers whose HARQ-ACK/NACKs may be fed back at the same time in the same uplink time unit. This disclosure does not limit the length of the downlink time unit, which may be, for example, a downlink slot, a mini-slot, or an OFDM symbol. In some embodiments, the first type of DAI counts in a granularity of the number of CBGs. If configured in a TB scheduling mode, one TB can be considered as corresponding to one CBG. When the carrier configured for the TB scheduling mode is scheduled and the base station does not configure the spatial dimension bundling,the number of CBGs scheduled for this carrier may be considered as a fixed value. For example, the number of CBGs scheduled for this carrier may be equal to the maximum number of TBs Nmax_TB=2 that can be supportedin a MIMO mode. Alternatively, the number of CBGs scheduled for this carrier may be equal to the number of actually scheduled TBs.

For the above (3) or (4), the maximum number of CBGs Nmax_CBG of each scheduled downlink time unit and/or the downlink carrier may be different. For example, the base station configures different Nmax_CBG for different downlink carriers. A special case is that a TB scheduling mode is configured for part of carriers. When the base station does not configure the bundlingof the spatial dimension, Nmax_CBG=2 for these carriers. If one TB is scheduled, the HARQ-ACK bits of the other TB are dummybits, while a CBG scheduling mode is configured for part of carriers, but the specific values of Nmax_CBG of each carrier configured with a CBG scheduling mode may be different. According to the method of the present invention, values of Nmax_CBG HARQ-ACKs are determined; or for a carrier configured with a TB scheduling mode, Nmax_CBG depends on the number of actually scheduled TBs; Nmax_CBG=1 if only one TB is Nmax_CBG=2 if two TBs are scheduled. It can be easily seen that the first type of DAI counts in the granularity of the number of CBGs, and the count of TB dimensions is included in the count of CBG dimensions. Then, no matter for the TB scheduling mode or the CBG scheduling mode, the first type of DAI calculates the number of HARQ-ACK bits that all the TBs in each PDSCH needs to feed, no matter one TB or two TBs are scheduled.

When the base station configures the bundlingof the spatial dimension, Nmax_CBG=1 for the carrier for which a TB scheduling mode is configured. If two TBs are scheduled, the HARQ-ACKs of the two TBs are operated with an AND operation, for a carrier for which a CBG scheduling mode is configured, if two TBs are scheduled, according to the method of the present invention, a HARQ-ACK of Nmax_CBG bits is fed back regardless of whether one or two TBs are scheduled.

For example, it may be assumed that the time length of the HARQ-ACK feedback bundlingwindow is one downlink time unit and there are 3 carriers in the frequency domain dimension. All three carriers are configured to supportscheduling of up to 2 TBs. In one downlink time unit, the base station may schedule the PDSCH on two of the carriers, where carrier 1 may be configured in a CBG based scheduling manner and the maximum number of CBGs Nmax_CBG C1=4 while carrier 2 may be configured in a TB based scheduling mode, and Nmax_CBG_C2=Nmax_TB=2. In addition, carrier 3 may be configured in a CBG based scheduling manner, and the maximum number of CBGs Nmax_CBG_C3=6. It is Assumed that carrier 1 schedules 2 TBs, the total number of CBGs scheduled by the 2 TBs is 3; and carrier 1 schedules 1 TB, and the total number of scheduled CBGs is 6. Then, as shown in FIG. 5, according to the method of (1), the first type of DAI of carrier 1=3, which indicates that carrier 1 schedules three CBGs, and the first type of DAI of carrier 3=9, which indicates that carrier 1 to carrier 3 totally schedule 9 CBGs. When the UE receives the first type of DAI of carrier 3, it can find that the base station does not schedule carrier 2. According to the method of (4), the first type of DAI of carrier 1=9, which indicates that carrier 1 is the first scheduled carrier, and the first type of DAI of carrier 3=5, which indicates carrier 1 to carrier 2, and the total number of the maximum number of CBGs corresponding to each carrier scheduled by the base station is 4. When the UE receives the first type of DAI of carrier 3, it can find that the base station does not schedule carrier 2.

For another example, it can be assumed that carrier 1 schedules 2 TBs, and the total number of CBGs scheduled by these 2 TBs is 3, carrier 2 schedules 1 TB and carrier 3 schedules 1 TB, and the total number of scheduled CBGs is 6. Then, according to the method of (1), the first type of DAI of carrier 1=3, which indicates that carrier 1 schedules three CBGs; the first type of DAI of carrier 2=5, which indicates that a total of five CBGs are scheduled for carrier 1 to carrier 2; and the first type of DAI of carrier 3=11, which indicates that 11 CBGs are scheduled for carrier 1 to carrier 3 in total. Assuming that the UE fails to receive the PDCCH of carrier 2, butit receives the PDCCHs of carrier 1 and carrier 3. Then, when receiving the first type of DAI of carrier 3, the UE may find it missed the PDCCH of carrier 2 and determine that carrier 2 actually schedules up to two CBGs. What shall be noted is that the base station may schedule 1 TB or 2 TBs. However, no matter how many TBs are scheduled by the base station, it is considered that a maximum of 2 CBGs are scheduled.

According to the method of (4), as shown in FIG. 6, the first type of DAI of carrier 1=1, the first type of DAI of carrier 2=5, and the first type of DAI of carrier 3=7. Assuming that the UE fails to receive the PDCCH of carrier 2, butit receives the PDCCHs of carrier 1 and carrier 3. Then, when it receives the first type of DAI of carrier 3, the UE may find it missed the PDCCH of carrier 2. Assuming that the UE fails to receive the PDCCH of carrier 1 and receives the PDCCHs of carrier 2 and carrier 3, the UE can find it missed the PDCCH of carrier 1 when receiving the first type of DAI of carrier 2. In addition, the UE may determine that carrier 2 only schedules 1 TB according to the PDCCH of carrier 2, butthe UE still needs to generate HARQ-ACKs of 2 TBs when generating the HARQ-ACK, where the HARQ-ACK of 1 TB is determined as an ACK/NACK according to the decoding result of the PDSCH, and the HARQ-ACK of the other TB is a dummybit, which may be a fixed value, for example, the value may be an NACK/DTX. Alternatively, assuming that Nmax CBG for a TB scheduled carrier is determined according to the number of scheduled TBs, then in this example, the first type of DAI of carrier 1=1, the first type of DAI of carrier 2=5, and the first type of DAI of carrier 3 is not 7, but6. Assuming that the UE fails to receive the PDCCH of carrier 2, butit receives the PDCCHs of carrier 1 and carrier 3. Then, when generating the HARQ-ACK of carrier 2, the UE only needs to generate HARQ-ACK of 1 TB.

In some embodiments, a first type of DAI may be used to calculate a start point of a bit position of ACK/NACK for the currentlyscheduled downlink time unit (e.g., downlink time unit Ti) and downlink carrier (e.g., downlink carrier Ci) in the HARQ-ACK codebook.

Corresponding to (2) or (4), the starting point of the bit position of ACK/NACK of the downlink time unit Ti and the downlink carrier Ci in the HARQ-ACK codebook may be equal to the corresponding DAI. In some embodiments, the bit length of ACK/NACK of the downlink time unit Ti and the downlink carrier Ci may be the number of CBGs scheduled (corresponding to (2)) or the maximum number of CBGs (corresponding to (4)).

Corresponding to (1) or (3), the start point of the bit position of ACK NACK of the downlink time unit Ti and the downlink carrier Ci in the HARQ-ACK codebook may be equal to the corresponding DAI minus the bit length of ACK/NACK of the downlink time unit Ti and the downlink carrier Ci plus 1. In some embodiments, the bit length of ACK/NACK of the downlink time unit Ti and the downlink carrier Ci may be the number of CBGs scheduled (corresponding to (1)) or the maximum number of CB Gs (corresponding to (3)).

In some embodiments, when the UE feeds back the ACK/NACK of the downlink time unit Ti and the downlink carrier Ci, when the UE is configured in the CBG scheduling mode, the ACK/NACK of the CBG in the first scheduled TB is mapped first, the ACK/NACK of the CBG in the second scheduled TB (if 2 TBs are scheduled) is then mapped.

In some embodiments, corresponding to (1) or (2), when mapping ACKs/NACKs of respective CBGs in one TB, the ACK/NACK of each scheduled CBG is mapped in ascending order according to indexes of the CBGs actually scheduled by the TB.

In some embodiments, corresponding to (3) or (4), when mapping ACKs/NACKs of respective CBGs in one TB, the ACK/NACK of each CBG may be mapped in ascending order according to the indexes of the CBGs of the TB, where the ACK/NACK of the scheduled CBG is determined according to the decoding result of the CBG, and the ACK/NACK of the unscheduled CBG is a dummybit for which a predefined value may be used. In addition, the total length of ACK/NACK bits for all TBs of the downlink time unit Ti and the downlink carrier Ci may be Nmax_CBG.

If it is configured in a TB scheduling mode, corresponding to (1)˜(4), the ACK/NACK of the first TB may be mapped first, then the ACK/NACK of the second TB may be mapped. The ACK/NACK of the scheduled TB is determined according to the decoding result of the TB. The ACK/NACK of the unscheduled TB is a dummybit for which a predefined value may be used.

The second type of DAI, also called total DAI, may indicate a total number of bits of the HARQ-ACK codebook, or a total number of scheduled CBGs of all scheduled carriers from a first downlink time unit among all scheduled downlink time units to the current downlink time unit in the HARQ-ACK feedback bundlingwindow, or a total number of the maximum numbers of CBGs of all scheduled carriers from a first downlink time unit among all scheduled downlink time units to the current downlink time unit in the HARQ-ACK feedback bundlingwindow, or the sum of the number of corresponding HARQ-ACK bits to be fed back.

For example, in one downlink time unit, the PDSCH is scheduled on 2 carriers, where carrier 1 is configured in a CBG-based scheduling mode with the maximum number of CBGs Nmax_CBG=4 and carrier 2 is configured in a TB-based scheduling mode. It is assumed that carrier 1 schedules 2 TBs and that the total number of CBGs scheduled by the 2 TBs is 3. If the second type of DAI represents a total number of scheduled CBGs of all scheduled carriers from a first downlink time unit among all scheduled downlink time units corresponding to a given uplink time unit to the current-downlink time unit, the second type of DAI of carrier 1 and carrier 2=3+2=5. If the second type of DAI represents a total number of the maximum numbers of CBGs of all scheduled carriers from a first downlink time unit among all scheduled downlink time units corresponding to a given uplink time unit to the current downlink time unit, the second type of carrier 1 and carrier 2=4+2=6.

Note that for a first type of DAI or a second type of DAI, there may be a case where a bit status corresponds to the value of multipleDAIs dueto a limitation of the bit overhead. For example, in an LTE system, the DAI includes only 2 bits, butthe actual value indicated by the DAI is 1 to 32 or more. In this case, a modulo form is usually adopted. For example, DAI=“00” indicates that the value of DAI is 1, 5, 9, . . . , 4*(M−1)+1.

Another method for determining the total number of bits of the HARQ-ACK codebook may be not based on DAI. The size of the HARQ-ACK codebook and the bit arrangement order are determined based on the number of semi-statically configured carriers, the HARQ-ACK feedback bundlingwindow, and the number of HARQ-ACK bits of the downlink time unit Ti on the downlink carrier Ci that is semi-statically configured. In this case, for the carrier configured for TB scheduling, the number of HARQ-ACK bits may be determined according to the maximum number of TBs that can be transmitted, for example, 1 bit if the downlink carrier Ci is configured to have only one TB in maximum, and 2 bits if the downlink carrier Ci is configured to have only 2 TBs in maximumno matter how many TBs are actually scheduled. For the carrier configured for CBG scheduling, it is fixed at Nmax_CBG_i regardless of the number of TBs.

The foregoing embodiments are mainly described from the perspective of a base station. For those skilled in the art, according to the foregoing description, in order to ensure correct reception of the UE, the UE needs to follow the same or corresponding criterion and method as the base station to determine the received DCI, determine the CBG information therein, determine whether it is for one TB or multipleTBs, and determine each CBG indication in the DCI corresponds to which CBG of which CB, and determine how the received PDDCH is divided into CB, and how the received PDSCH is combined into CBG. Here for the sake of brevity, it will not be repeated. In addition, in order to ensure correct feedback of HARQ-ACK, the UE may also need to determine the information of the first type and/or the second type of DAI in the received DCI according to the same or corresponding criterion and method as the base station, and determine the HARQ-ACK feedback according to the information of the first type or the second type of DAI, or determine the HARQ-ACK feedback according to a predefined rule,for example, the number of HARQ-ACK bits fed back in each scheduling is fixed as Nmax_CBG, and details are not described herein for the same reasons.

By using the solution according to the foregoing embodiment, the length of the DCI in each scheduling may not be changed according to the number of scheduled TBs, which reduces the complexity of blindly detecting the PDCCH by the UE. In addition, when the UE performs HARQ-ACK feedback, the number of HARQ-ACK bits corresponding to the scheduled PDSCH does not change according to the number of scheduled TBs, which saves the HARQ-ACK feedback overhead. In addition, it avoids the case that when one or more of the PDSCHs (PDCCHs) are missed by the UE when HARQ-ACK of PDSCHs of multiplecarriers or HARQ-ACKs of PDSCHs of multiple-downlink time units are fed back in one uplink time unit, the size of the HARQ-ACK codebook or the arrangement order thereof cannot be determined dueto the uncertainty in the number of TBs of the missed PDSCHs.

A flowchart of an exemplified method for feeding back a HARQ-ACK/NACK is explained in detail below in conjunction with FIG. 2 and other figures. FIG. 2 is a flowchart of an exemplified method 200 for feeding back HARQ-ACK/NACK in accordance with an embodiment of the disclosure. As shown in FIG. 2, the method 200 may begin with step S210. At step S210, the UE may receive downlink control signaling from the associated base station. Next, at step S220, the UE may generate a HARQ-ACK codebook based on the downlink control signaling and a decoding result for a downlink transmission corresponding to the downlink control signaling. In step S230, the UE may feed, to the base station, an HARQ-ACK corresponding to the downlink transmission according to the generated HARQ-ACK codebook.

In some embodiments, the UE may determine the size of the HARQ-ACK codebook, and the position of the ACK/NACK bits of the PDSCH scheduled by the downlink control signaling in the HARQ-ACK codebook, according to the following first and/or second type of DAI included in the downlink control signaling (note that the first type and/or the second type of DAI here may be different to the first and/or second types of DAI described above in connection with FIG. 1, for details please make reference to the definitions of the first and second types of DAI described below) and the selected reference TB.

In some embodiments, if the carrier for which the current downlink time unit is scheduled is configured in an operating mode to schedule at most one TB, for example a single antenna SIMO (Single Input MultipleOutput)transmission mode, the reference TB may be the one scheduled TB, which corresponds to DAI. In other words, this can also be understood as no need to determine the reference TB.

In some other embodiments, if the carrier for which the current downlink time unit is scheduled is configured in an operating mode capable of scheduling more than one TB at most, and the carrier for which the current downlink time unit is scheduled is configured to be in the TB scheduling mode, any one of the TBs may be selected as the reference TB. For example, the first TB can be selected as the reference TB, which corresponds to the DAI. In other words, this can also be understood as n no need to determine the reference TB.

In still other embodiments, if the carrier for which the current downlink time unit is scheduled is configured in an operating mode capable of scheduling more than one TB at most, and the carrier for which the current downlink time unit is scheduled is configured to be in a CBG scheduling mode, which TB actually schedules the maximum number of CBGs is determined according to the downlink control information, and the TB is determined as a reference TB, which corresponds to the DAI. In some embodiments, if the numbers of actually-scheduled CBGs of multiple TBs are equal, any one of the multipleTBs may be selected to correspond to the DAI.

In still other embodiments, if the carrier for which the current downlink time unit is scheduled is configured in an operating mode capable of scheduling more than one TB at most, and the carrier for which the current downlink time unit is scheduled is configured to be in a CBG scheduling mode, and the number of HARQ-ACK bits that can be fed back by each TB is the same, it is determined according to the configured maximum number of CBGs. For example, any one of the TBs may be selected as a reference TB, which corresponds to the DAI.

In some embodiments, the number of ACK/NACK bits fed back by the UE for the PDSCH scheduled by the downlink control signaling may be Nmax_TB*NCBG ref, where Nmax_TB is the maximum number of TBs that can be scheduled in the PDSCH in the configured operating mode. Normally Nmax_TB can be 2. For carriers configured in a CBG scheduling mode, NCBG_ref may be the number of CBGs actually scheduled by the reference TB corresponding to the DAI. NCBG_ref may be 1 for carriers configured in a TB scheduling mode. For the carriers configured in the CBG scheduling mode, and the number of HARQ-ACK bits that each TB can feed back is equal to the configured maximum number of CBGs Nmax_CBG, NCBG_ref may be Nmax_CBG.

Alternatively, both the first type and/or the second type of DAI may use a fixed one TB as a reference, regardless of whether the scheduled carrier is configured to operate in the CBG or the TB scheduling mode. Further,the number of ACK/NACK bits fed back by the UE for the PDSCH scheduled by the downlink control signaling may be Nmax_TB*Nmax_CBG_ref. For a carrier configured in a CBG scheduling mode, Nmax_CBG_ref may be the maximum number of CBGs that can be scheduled by the reference TB corresponding to the DAI. Nmax_CBG_ref may be 1 for carriers configured in a TB scheduling mode.

Different from the embodiment shown in FIG. 1, Nmax_CBG_ref or NCBG_ref in the embodiment shown in FIG. 2 is for one TB. If multipleTBs are scheduled in one PDSCH, for example, if two TBs are scheduled, the sum of the maximum number of CBGs of the two TBs in one PDSCH is Nmax_CBG_ref*2.

Similarly, if two TBs are scheduled, the number of actually scheduled CBGs for two TBs in one PDSCH is NCBG_TB1+NCBG_TB2, where NCBG_ref=max (NCBG_TB1, NCBG_TB2).

For DCI scheduling this PDSCH, the indication of each CBG for each TB may be independent. For example, for 2 TBs, each TB has a bit indication for each CBG. For example, if Nmax_CBG=Nmax_CBG_ref=4, there is an 8-bit indication regardless of whether the base station actually schedules 1 or 2 TBs. When the base station only schedules one TB, the 4 bits of one TB that are not scheduled do not indicate the information of this TB, and can be used for other purposes,or are only dummybits. For the DCI scheduling this PDSCH, the indication of each CBG of each TB may also be used in combination, which is not limited in the present disclosure.

In the embodiment shown in FIG. 2, the first type of DAI, which may also be referred to as a counter DAI, may indicate one of the following:

(1) the sum of the number of CBGs (NCBG_ref) actually scheduled by the reference TB of each scheduled downlink time unit and/or the downlink carrier in the HARQ-ACK feedback bundlingwindow up to the currentlyscheduled downlink time unit (e.g., the downlink time unit Ti) and the currentcarrier (e.g., the currentcarrier Ci);

(2) the sum of the number of CBGs actually scheduled by the reference TB of each scheduled downlink time unit and/or the downlink carrier in the HARQ-ACK feedback bundlingwindow up to the currentlyscheduled downlink time unit (e.g., the downlink time unit Ti) and/or the latest downlink time unit and/or carrier before the current carrier (e.g., the currentcarrier Ci) plus one;

(3) the sum of the maximum number(Nmax_CBG_ref) of CBGs of the reference TB of the scheduled downlink time unit and/or the downlink carrier in the HARQ-ACK feedback bundlingwindow up to the currently scheduled downlink time unit (e.g., the downlink time unit Ti) and the currentcarrier (e.g., the currentcarrier Ci); and

(4) the sum of the maximum number of CBGs of the reference TB of the scheduled downlink time unit and/or the downlink carrier in the HARQ-ACK feedback bundlingwindow up to the currentlyscheduled downlink time unit (e.g., the downlink time unit Ti) and/or the latest downlink time unit and/or carrier before the currentcarrier (e.g., the currentcarrier Ci) plus one.

In the embodiment shown in FIG. 2, the second type of DAI may be used to indicate a total number of bits of the HARQ-ACK codebook; or a total number of scheduled CBGs of all scheduled carriers from a first downlink time unit among all scheduled downlink time units to the current downlink time unit in the HARQ-ACK feedback bundlingwindow; or a total number of the maximum numbers of CBGs of all scheduled carriers from a first downlink time unit among all scheduled downlink time units to the current downlink time unit in the HARQ-ACK feedback bundlingwindow.

In some embodiments, the total number of bits of the HARQ-ACK codebook or the total number of scheduled CBGs or total number of the maximum numbers of CBGs may be equal to a product of the second type of DAI and Nmax_TB when the base station does not configure a bundlingof the spatial dimension. In some embodiments, when the base station configures the bundlingof the spatial dimension, the total number of bits of the HARQ-ACK codebook or the total number of scheduled CBGs or the total number of the maximum numbers of CBGs may be equal to the second type of DAI.

In some embodiments, the first type of DAI may be used to calculate a start point of a bit position of ACK/NACK bits for the currentlyscheduled downlink time unit in the HARQ-ACK codebook. For example, if Nmax_TB=2, corresponding to (2) or (4), in some embodiments when the base station does not configure a bundlingof the spatial dimension, the start point of the bit position of the ACK/NACK bits for downlink time unit Ti and downlink carrier Ci in the HARQ-ACK codebook may be equal to the corresponding DAI multipliedby 2 and minus 1. Corresponding to (1), the start point of the bit position of the ACK/NACK bits of the downlink time unit Ti and the downlink carrier Ci in the HARQ-ACK codebook may be equal to the corresponding DAI minus NCBG ref of the downlink time unit Ti and the downlink carrier Ci, then multipliedby 2 and plus 1. Corresponding to (3), the starting point of the bit position of the ACK/NACK bits of the downlink time unit Ti and the downlink carrier Ci in the HARQ-ACK codebook may be equal to the corresponding DAI minus Nmax_CBG_ref of the downlink time unit Ti and the downlink carrier Ci, then multipliedby 2 and plus 1.

In addition, in other embodiments, corresponding to (2) or (4), the starting position of the bit position of theACK/NACK bits of the downlink time unit Ti and the downlink carrier Ci in the HARQ-ACK codebook may be equal to the corresponding DAI when the base station configures the bundlingof the spatial dimension. Corresponding to (1), the start point of the bit position of the ACK/NACK bits of the downlink time unit Ti and the downlink carrier Ci in the HARQ-ACK codebook may be equal to the corresponding DAI minus NCBG_ref of the downlink time unit Ti and the downlink carrier Ci and plus one. Corresponding to (3), the start point of the bit position of the ACK/NACK bits of the downlink time unit Ti and the downlink carrier Ci in the HARQ-ACK codebook may be equal to the corresponding DAI minus Nmax_CBG_ref of the downlink time unit Ti and the downlink carrier Ci and plus one.

If the base station does not configure the bundlingof the spatial dimension, when the UE feeds back the ACK/NACK of the downlink time unit Ti and the downlink carrier Ci, the ACK/NACK of the CBG in the first TB may be mapped first and then the ACK/NACK of the CBG in the second TB are mapped.

Corresponding to (1) or (2), for each TB, the ACK/NACK bits of each scheduled CBG may be sequentially mapped in ascending order according to the indexes of the actually scheduled CBG. When the numbers of CBGs scheduled by two TBs are different, for a TB with a smaller number of CBGs, a dummybit may be sent so that the number of ACK/NACK bits of the TBs is equal to NCBG_ref. For example, 2 TBs are scheduled, CBGs 1, 2, 3 are scheduled by TBa, and CBGs 2 and 4 are scheduled by TBb. Then NCBG_ref=3 and a 6-bit ACK/NACK is fed back. First the ACK/NACKs of the three CBGs of TBa are mapped, the ACK NACK bits of the second and fourth CBGs of the TBb are then mapped, and finally the 1-bit dummybit is mapped.

Corresponding to (3) or (4), when mapping ACKs/NACKs of respective CBGs in one TB, the ACK/NACK bit of each CBG may be sequentially mapped in ascending order according to an index of the CBG of the TB. The ACK/NACK of the scheduled CBG is determined according to the decoding result of the CBG. The ACK/NACK of the unscheduled CBG may be a dummybit for which a predefined value may be used, so that the number of ACK/NACK bits of each TB is equal to Nmax_CBG_ref. Corresponding to (1)˜(4), the ACK/NACK of unscheduled TBs may be a dummybit for which a predefined value may be used.

In addition, if the base station configures the bundlingof the spatial dimension, when the UE feeds back the ACK/NACK of the downlink time unit Ti and the downlink carrier Ci, if the TB scheduling mode is configured, the ACK/NACK bits of each scheduled TB may be logically ANDed. Alternatively, ACKs/NACKs for non-scheduled TBs may be set as ACKs, and ACKs/NACKs for each TBs may be logically ANDed. If the CBG scheduling mode is configured, the ACKs/NACKs scheduled in each TB and having the same CBG index may be logically ANDed, that is, the unscheduled CBGs do not participate in the logical AND operation. At this moment, the number of ACK/NACK bits fed back by the UE for the PDSCH scheduled by the downlink control signaling is Nmax_TB*Nmax_CBG_ref, where Nmax_TB=1. Correspondingly, in a more reasonable manner, when the configured CBG scheduling mode adopts the bundlingof the spatial dimension and when two TBs are scheduled, the UE may consider that the bits in the downlink scheduling signaling indicating whether the corresponding CB/CBG is scheduled are common to 2 TBs, that is, there is only one set of bits indicating CB/CBG, and there is no independent CB/CBG scheduling indication for these 2 TBs.

The bundlingof the spatial dimension can be configured by a signaling, which is applicable to both the TB scheduling mode and the CBG scheduling mode. Alternatively, the bundlingof the spatial dimension may be configured independently by two signaling. Or, there is only one signaling for TB scheduling mode, for the CBG scheduling mode, it indicates by defaults that it requires bundlingof spatial dimension.

Corresponding to (3) or (4), the ACK/NACKs scheduled in each TB and having the same CBG index may be logically ANDed, i.e., the unscheduled CBGs do not participate in the logical AND operation. For CBGs that are not scheduled in each TB, the ACK/NACK may be a dummy bit. For example, if 2 TBs are scheduled and Nmax CBG=4, TBa schedules #1 and #3 CBGs and TBb schedules #1 and #2 CBGs. The UE generates a 4-bit ACK/NACK in total, corresponding to 4 CBGs respectively. The first bit of ACK/NACK is the result of a logical AND operation of ACKs/NACKs for TBa #1 CBG and TBb #1 CBG, the second bit of ACKs/NACKs is the ACK/NACK for TBb #2 CBG, the third bit of ACKs/NACKs is the ACK/NACK of TBa #3 CBG, and the 4th bit is a dummybit. Alternatively, the ACKs/NACKs of the unscheduled CBGs may be ACKs, and the ACKs/NACKs of the CBGs with the same CBG index in each TB may be logically ANDed.

Corresponding to (1) or (2), for each TB, the virtual CBG index j can be obtained according to the indexes of the actual scheduled CBGs, in ascending order. Then, according to the virtual CBG index, the ACKs/NACKs of the CBGs with the same CBG index in each TB are logically ANDed. Alternatively, the ACKs/NACKs of the CBGs with the same CBG index and actually scheduled in each TB may be logically ANDed. If the CBG indexes actually scheduled by each TB are different, the indexes of the actually scheduled CBGs are sorted in ascending order according to indexes of actually scheduled CBGs, to obtain a virtual CBG index j, and the ACKs/NACKs of the CBGs with the same CBG index in each TB are logically ANDed according to the virtual CBG index.

For example, TBa schedules CBG #1, CBG #3, #4 and TBb schedules CBG #1, CBG #2, CBG #4 for 2 TBs. Then, a 3-bit ACK/NACK is fed back, where the first bit of the HARQ-ACK codebook may be a logical AND of the ACK/NACK of CBG #1 of TBa and the ACK/NACK of CBG #1 of TBb, and the second bit may be a logical AND of the ACK/NACK of CBG #4 of TBa and the ACK/NACK of CBG #4 of TBb, and the third bit may be a logical AND of the ACK/NACK of CBG #3 of TBa and the ACK/NACK of CBG #2 of TBb.

For example, assuming that the bundlingof the spatial dimension is not configured, the time length of the HARQ-ACK feedback bundlingwindow is one downlink time unit, and the frequency domain dimension has 3 carriers. In one downlink time unit, the base station may schedule the PDSCH on two of the carriers, where carrier 1 is configured in a CBG-based scheduling manner and the maximum number of CBGs Nmax_CBG_C1=4 while carrier 2 is configured in a TB-based scheduling Mode, and Nmax CBG_C2=1. In addition, the carrier 3 is configured to be based on the CBG scheduling mode, and the maximum number of CBGs Nmax_CBG_C3=6. It is assumed that carrier 1 schedules 2 TBs, where TBa schedules 1 CBG (e.g., #3) and TBb schedules 2 CBGs (e.g., #1 and #2).

Then, according to the method (1) or (2), the TB corresponding to the DAI may be TBb and NCBG ref C1=2. The TB corresponding to the DAI may be any one according to the method (3) or (4) (selecting TBb or TBa is completely equivalent since the maximum number of CBGs configured by the base station is the same for each TB), suchas TBa, and Nmax_CBG_C1=4. Carrier 2 schedules 1 TBc. According to the methods (1)˜(4), the TB corresponding to the DAI may be TBc, NCBG_ref_C2=1, and Nmax_CBG_C2=1.

According to the method (1), as shown in FIG. 7, the first type of DAI of carrier 1 may be 2, the first type of DAI of carrier 2 may be 3, and the second type of DAI of carrier 1 and carrier 2 may be 3. The size of the HARQ-ACK codebook fed back by the UE may be of 6 bits.

In some embodiments, carrier 1 occupies 4 bits, where TBa has 2 bits of ACK/NACK, and the first bit in the HARQ-ACK codebook is determined according to the detection result of the scheduled CBG. The second bit is a dummybit. TBb has 2 bits of ACK/NACK, and bits 3 and 4 in the HARQ-ACK codebook are determined according to the detection result of the scheduled CBG.

In some embodiments, carrier 2 occupies 2 bits, TBc has 1 bit of ACK/NACK, the fifth bit in the HARQ-ACK codebook is determined according to the detection result of the scheduled TBc, and the 6th bit in HARQ-ACK codebook is a dummybit.

According to the method (2), the first type of DAI of carrier 1 may be 1, the first type of DAI of carrier 2 may be 3, and the second type of DAI of carrier 1 and carrier 2 may be 3. The bitmap of ACK/NACK may be the same as the bitmap of ACK/NACK of (1).

According to the method (3), in the example of FIG. 7, if Nmax_CBG_C1 represents the maximum number of CBGs for one PDSCH or the number of bits of HARQ-ACKs fed back by one PDSCH, when 2 TBs are scheduled, it is assumed that each TB has four CBGs, an internal CBG dimension bundlingis performed in each TB. As shown in FIGS. 9, 1st and 2nd CBGs of TBa are bundled, 3rd and 4th CBGs of TBa are bundled, 1st and 2nd CBG of TBb are bundled, 3rd and 4th CBGs of TBb are bundled.TBb or TBa can be selected as the reference TB, then the first type of DAI for carrier 1 is 2. The first type of DAI of carrier 2 is 3, and the second type of DAI of carrier 1 and carrier 2 is 3. The size of the HARQ-ACK codebook fed back by the UE is of 6 bits. It can be easily seen that for the carriers in a TB scheduling mode and for the carries in a CBG scheduling mode that actually schedules 2 TBs, the counts of the first type of DAIs are the count of the reference TB, butfor the carries in a CBG scheduling mode that actually schedules only 1 TB, The counts of DAIs are the number of CBGs for this TB divided by 2. In another situation, as shown in FIG. 10, carrier 1 can schedule at most two TBs, and carrier 1 actually schedules only TBa i.e., the third CBG. Then, the HARQ-ACK fed back by the TB is of 4 bits. The 3rd bit determines the HARQ-ACK according to the decoding result, and the other 3 bits can send the dummybits. The first type of DAI of carrier 1=2, the second type of DAI of carrier 1=3. The first type of DAI of carrier 2 is 3 and the second type of DAI of carrier 2 is 3. The advantage is that it can effectively reduce the overhead of DAI. The size of the HARQ-ACK codebook is the second type of DAI*2. If Nmax_CBG_C1=4 represents the maximum number of CBGs for a TB, in the example of FIG. 7, the first type of DAI of carrier 1 may be 4, the first type of DAI of carrier 2 may be 5, the second type of DAI of carrier 1 and carrier 2 may be 5. The size of the HARQ-ACK codebook fed back by the UE is of 10 bits. In some embodiments, carrier 1 occupies 8 bits and TBa has a 4-bit ACK/NACK. The third bit in the HARQ-ACK codebook determines the ACK/NACK value according to the detection result of the scheduled #3 CBG, and bits 1, 2, 4 are dummybits. TBb has a 4-bit ACK/NACK, bits 5 and 6 in the HARQ-ACK codebook determine ACK/NACK values based on the detection results of the scheduled #1 CBG and #2 CBG, and bits 7 and 8 are dummyBit. In some carrier 2 occupies 2 bits and TBc has a 1-bit ACK/NACK. The 9th bit in the HARQ-ACK codebook determines the ACK/NACK value according to the detection result of the scheduled TBc, and the 10th bit in the HARQ-ACK codebook is a dummybit.

According to the method (4), as shown in FIG. 8, Nmax_CBG_C1=4 represents the maximum number of CBGs of one TB, the first type of DAI of carrier 1 may be 1, the first type of DAI of carrier 2 may be 5, and the second type of DAI of carrier 2 may be 5. The total number of bits of the HARQ-ACK/NACK codebook is 10.

It should be noted that for the first or second type of DAI, there may be a case where a bit status corresponds to the value of multipleDAIs dueto a limitation of the bit overhead. For example, in an LTE system, the DAI may include only 2 bits, butthe actual value indicated by the DAI may be 1 to 32 or more. In this case, a modulo form is usually adopted. For example, DAI=“00” indicates that the value of DAI is 1, 5, 9, . . . , 4*(M−1)+1. For another example, the value of DAI may be determined by taking the greatest common divisor of the maximum number of HARQ-ACK bits that can be sent by each PDSCH as a step. It is assumed that Nmax CBG may have values 2 and 4. Then the step is 2. The second type of DAI=“000” means that value of DAI is 2, . . . 16*(M−1)+2, DAI=“001” means the value of DAI is 4 . . . 16*(M−1)+4, DAI=“010” means the value of DAI is 6 . . . 16*(M−1)+6, DAI=“110” means the value of DAI is 14 . . . 16*(M−1)+14, DAI=“111” means that value of DAI is 16 . . . 16*(M−1)+16. The foregoing embodiment is mainly described from the UE side. However, it is not difficult see that in order to ensure correct and reception of HARQ-ACK, the base station also needs to determine the value of the first of DAI and/or the second type of DAI in transmitting the DCI according to the same or corresponding criterion and method as the UE, and the size of the HARQ-ACK codebook and the mapping of the ACK/NACK bits when the HARQ-ACK codebook is received.

In some embodiments, if the base station configures at least one carrier for the UE in the CBG scheduling mode, the base station cannot configure HARQ-ACK spatial bundlingfor the carrier which is configured with CBG scheduling mode for the UE at the same time.

In some embodiments, when the uplink control signaling including the HARQ-ACK exceeds the maximum number of bits that can be carried by the PUCCH format used, the UE may prioritize the HARQ-ACK bundlingof the spatial dimension over the bundlingof the CBG dimension bundling.Alternatively, the UE may preferentially perform bundlingof the CBG dimension with respect to the bundlingof the spatial dimension. The bundlingof the CBG dimension generates a 1-bit HARQ-ACK after a logical AND operation on the HARQ-ACKs of multipleCBGs of one TB. The HARQ-ACK bundlingof the spatial dimension is performed according to the method when the base station configures the HARQ-ACK bundlingof the spatial dimension according to the embodiment of the present disclosure.

In some embodiments, the HARQ-ACK bundlingof the CBG dimension may be implemented so that the number of HARQ-ACK bits of the carrier based on the CBG scheduling is a fixed value Nmax harq without changing with the number of actually scheduled TBs. The fixed value is configured by the base station or marked as predefined. It can be implemented according to at least one of the following methods:

If Nmax_harq=Nmax_CBG, and Nmax_CBG is the total number of the maximum numbers of CBGs for all TBs scheduled at a time, the number of HARQ-ACK bits of each TB is Nmax_harq/Nmax_TB. The scheduled TB generates an ACK/NACK according to a decoding result, and the unscheduled TB sends Nmax_CBG_TBi dummybits, where the predefined dummybit may be a NACK or an ACK.

If Nmax_harq=Nmax_CBG, and Nmax_CBG is the maximum number of CBGs for one TB scheduled at a time, the sum of the number of HARQ-ACK bits corresponding to all TBs scheduled at a time may be Nmax_CBG according to the method described below. For example, when 2 TBs are scheduled, although the maximum number of CBGs that can be scheduled by each TB is Nmax_CBG=4, the number of HARQ-ACK bits of each TB is Nmax_CBG/2=2. In an implementation manner, HARQ-ACKs of multipleCBGs may be ANDed according to a predefined rule,that is, HARQ-ACKs of multipleCBGs are bundled.For example, when two TBs are scheduled, assuming that the first TB schedules four CBGs and the second TB schedules three CBGs, the HARQ-ACKs of the first two CBGs of the first TB are ANDed to obtain a 1-bit HARQ-ACK and HARQ-ACKs of the last two CBGs are ANDed to obtain a 1-bit HARQ-ACK. The HARQ-ACKs of the first two CBGs of the second TB are ANDed to obtain a 1-bit HARQ-ACK and the HARQ-ACK of the 3rd CBG of the second TB is 1 bit. For another example, when two TBs are scheduled, it is assumed that the first TB schedules the second and third CBGs and the second TB schedules the third CBGs. Assuming that the DAI indicates that 3 CBGs are scheduled in total or indicates that it needs to feed 3 bits of HARQ-ACK back for the scheduling, no bundlingis needed. As another example, when two TBs are scheduled, it is assumed that the first TB schedules four CBGs and the second TB schedules the third CBG. Assuming that the DAI indicates that there are three CBGs scheduled or indicates that it needs to feed 3 bits of HARQ-ACK back for the scheduling, the HARQ-ACKs of the first and second CBGs of the first TB are bundled,and the HARQ-ACKs of the third and fourth CBGs of the first TB are bundled,and the third CBG of the second TB generates a one-bit HARQ-ACK.

Preferably, CBGs of different TBs are not bundled.

Preferably, CBGs that are not scheduled do not participate in bundling.For example, when two TBs are scheduled, assuming that the first TB schedules the first, third and fourth CBGs and the second TB schedules the first CBG, then the second CBG of the first TB does not participate in bundling.The first CBG corresponds to a 1-bit HARQ-ACK, the third and fourth CBGs operate to obtain a 1-bit HARQ-ACK, and the first CBG of the second TB corresponds to a 1-bit HARQ-ACK and generates a 1-bit of dummy bit. The dummybit is a predefined value, for example, a value of NACK.

Preferably, CBGs that are not scheduled do not participate in bundling. An unscheduled CBG corresponds to an ACK if it is previously scheduled and correctly decoded, otherwise a NACK.

The bundlingof CBG dimensions described above can be combined with the method of the first type of DAI/second type of DAI of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 11, the DAI performs counting in a granularity of CBG and counts the number of CBGs for all TBs for each PDSCH. Assuming that carrier 1 schedules the total number of bits for the HARQ-ACK feedback Nmax_harq=4, the base station schedules 2 TBs, each TB may be divided into 4 CBGs, TBa schedules the 3rd CBG, and TBb schedules the first and second CBG. Carrier 2 schedules TBc. Then, the first type of DAI of carrier 1 is 1, the first type of DAI of carrier 2 is 5, the second type of DAI of carrier 1 and carrier 2 is 5, and the size of the HARQ-ACK codebook fed back by the UE is 5 bits. The carrier 1 occupies 4 bits, TBa and TBb occupy 2 bits, the first bit of TBa is a dummybit, the second bit of TBa generates an ACK/NACK according to the detection result of CBG3, and the first bit of TBb is an AND operation result of the ACK/NACK as the detection result of CBG1 and CBG2, the second bit of TBb is a dummybit. Carrier 2 occupies 1 bit, and TBc has a 1-bit ACK/NACK. The fifth bit in the HARQ-ACK codebook determines the ACK/NACK value according to the detection result of the scheduled TBc. In this example, although carrier 2 can schedule 2 TBs at maximum, the number of HARQ-ACK bits of carrier 2 is determined according to the number of actually scheduled TB s. If, according to another method of the present invention, the HARQ-ACK code length configured for a carrier which is configured in a TB scheduling is 2, the size of the HARQ-ACK codebook in this example is 6 bits, of which the 6th bit is a dummybit.

With the above methods, the HARQ-ACK codebook may be changed according to the number of scheduled carriers and the number of scheduled downlink time units.

In addition, in another method of determining a HARQ-ACK codebook, the size of the HARQ-ACK codebook may be determined by the number of configured/activated downlink carriers or downlink time units that feed HARQ-ACKs back on a given uplink time unit/uplink carrier. In addition, it can also be determined by the maximum number of CBGs of these downlink carriers/downlink time units. In other words, the three dimensions can be summed.Note that the maximum number of CBGs for each downlink carrier and/or downlink time unit may be the same or different. If at least one downlink carrier is configured to operate in a multi-TBoperation mode and the base station does not configure a bundling for the spatial dimension, the size of the HARQ-ACK codebook may be based on summingthe three dimensions and multiplyingby the maximum number of TBs that can be scheduled. The maximum number of TBs that can be scheduled is the same for all downlink carriers and/or downlink time units. If the base station configures the bundling of the spatial dimension, the ACK/NACK with the same index of each CBG of each TB is logically ANDed.

In addition, in another method for determining the HARQ-ACK codebook, the size of the HARQ-ACK codebook may be determined according to the third type of DAI. The contents indicated by the third type of DAI are the same as the contents indicated by the second type of DAI, or the third type of DAI indicates the total number of bits of the HARQ-ACK/NACK codebook that the base station expects to receive, and the total number of bits of HARQ-ACK/NACK corresponding to the PDSCH actually scheduled by the base station is less than or equal to the expected total number of bits. When a HARQ-ACK is transmitted on the PUSCH, if the PUSCH needs to be rate-matched according to a HARQ-ACK codebook, the size of the HARQ-ACK codebook is indicated by the third type of DAI.

In addition, in the above method, it is not limited how to determine which HARQ-ACK of the PDSCH of the downlink time unit is fed back in an uplink time unit. For example, it can be determined according to the prior art, determined according to the semi-statically configured uplink-downlink configuration, or determined according to the HARQ-ACK feedback time indicated in the downlink control signaling.

In addition, in some embodiments, when the UE is configured to perform a CBG-based HARQ-ACK feedback, it may happen that the CRC checksum of each CBG in one TB is correct, butthe CRC checksum of the TB fails. In order to at least partially solve or mitigate this problem, the UE may perform HARQ-ACK feedback in one of the following ways.

1st HARQ-ACK Feedback

In some embodiments, the UE may not only feed the HARQ-ACK of the CBG back, butmay also feed the HARQ-ACK of the TB back. The ACK/NACK bits for this TB may be located at the beginning of the HARQ-ACK codebook or at the end of the HARQ-ACK codebook.

For example, when the UE is scheduled for 2 TBs, for example, the bit order of the HARQ-ACK codebook is ACK/NACK bits of TB1, ACK/NACK bits of #1 CBG of TB1, ACK/NACK bits of #2 CBG of TB1, . . . , ACK/NACK bits of #Nmax_CBG CBG of TB1, ACK/NACK bits of TB2, ACK/NACK bits of #1 CBG of TB2, . . . , ACK/NACK bits of #Nmax_CBG CBG of TB2, where Nmax_CBG is the maximum number of CB Gs of each TB.

2nd HARQ-ACK Feedback

In some embodiments, the UE may feed the HARQ-ACK of the CBG back and the bit length of the HARQ-ACK of the CBG fed back by the UE may be Nmax_CBG*Nmax_TB. If the spatial dimension bundling is adopted, the UE may feed the HARQ-ACK of the CBG back, and the bit length of the HARQ-ACK of the CBG fed back by the UE may be Nmax_CBG. For convenience, a single TB is described below. Assuming that the currentPDSCH transmission includes a complete TB, that is, all CBGs of one TB are transmitted, then if the UE correctly detects each of CBGs for a TB according to the correct CRC checksum for each CBG, butUE does not correctly detect the TB according to the incorrect CRC checksum for the TB, the UE may generate a NACK value for each of CBGs. In addition, if the UE correctly detects the TB according to the correct CRC checksum for the TB, the UE may generate a ACK value for each of CBGs.

If current downlink transmission does not include all the CBGs of one TB and all CBGs of the TB are correctly detected by CRC checksums for each CBG up to the currentscheduling time butthe TB is not correctly detected by a CRC checksum, the ACK/NACK is generated as at least one of the following: a NACK valuefor each of CBGs of the TB is generated; and a NACK value for each unscheduledCBGs in the currentscheduling for which ACKs were previously fed back is generated; a ACK/NACK value opposite to a value of a predefined dummybit for each of the unscheduled CBGs in the currentscheduling for which ACKs were previously fed back is generated

In addition, in some embodiments, if the currentscheduling only includes part of the TB, that is, some of CBGs of one TB is scheduled and until now, the UE finds that all CBGs of the TB are correctly detected by CRC checksums for each CBG butthe TB is not correctly detected by a CRC checksum for the TB. The UE may determine the value of ACK/NACK according to at least one of the following three methods:

(1) Generating a NACK value for each of CBGs of the TB;

(2) Generating a NACK value for each of CBGs unscheduled in this currentscheduling for which ACKs have been previously reported;

(3) Generating an ACK/NACK value opposite to a value of a predefined dummybit for each of the unscheduled CBGs in the currentscheduling for which ACKs were previously reported. For example, if the predefined dummybit value is NACK, then ACK is fed back in this case; on the contrary, if the predefined dummybit value is ACK, NACK is fed back in this case.

For example, the scheduled CBG may determine the ACK/NACK value according to the CRC checksum of the corresponding CBG, and the ACK/NACK value of the unscheduled but correctly decoded CBG may be ACK. In addition, when the UE finds that the CRC checksum of the TB is inconsistent with the CRC checksum of the CBG, the UE may set ACK/NACK value of all CBGs of the TB as NACK. For example, assume that the maximum number of CBGs that can be scheduled is 4. In the downlink time unit T1, the base station schedules an initial transmission of a TB, which is divided into four CBGs. If the UE receives the TB, in which the CRC checksums of #1 CBG and #2 CBG fail and the CRC checksums of #3 CBG and #4 CBG are successful,the HARQ-ACK fed back by the UE may be NACK, NACK, ACK, ACK. The base station schedules the retransmission of this TB in the downlink time unit T2, scheduling #1 and #2 CBGs, and the UE receives the TB. If the CRC checksums of #1 and #2 CBGs are correct, butthe CRC checksum of the TB fails, the HARQ-ACK fed back by the UE may be NACK, NACK, NACK, NACK in this case.

In addition, in some embodiments, if the currentscheduling only includes part of the TB, that is, some of CBGs of one TB is scheduled, and until now, the UE finds that all CBGs of the TB are correctly detected by CRC checksums for CBGs and the TB is also correctly detected by a CRC checksum for the TB, then the UE may determine the value of ACK/NACK according to one of the following two methods:

(1) Generate a ACK value for each CBG;

(2) Generate a ACK value for each CBGs scheduled in the currenttransmission, and ACKs/ NACKs of other CBGs are values of dummybits.

In some embodiments, when the number of CBGs actually divided in one TB is less than Nmax_CBG, the above method is only applicable to the HARQ-ACK bits corresponding to the number of actually divided CBGs, and does not limit HARQ-ACKs for other CBGs. For example, Nmax_CBG=4, the currentTB can only be divided into two CBGs; when a CRC error occurs, 2 bits of HARQ-ACKs are set to NACKs, and the other 2 bits are not limited. Alternatively, the above method is applicable to Nmax_CBG HARQ-ACK bits. For example, Nmax_CBG=4, the currentTB can only be divided into two CBGs, and when a CRC error of the TB occurs, 4 bits of HARQ-ACKs are all set to NACKs.

In some embodiments, the UE checks the CRC of a TB if and only if the CRC for all CBGs of the TB is correct.

The method in the foregoing embodiment may be used in combination with the embodiment shown in FIG. 1 and/or the embodiment shown in FIG. 2. For example, determination of the HARQ-ACK of unscheduled CBGs according to the method shown in FIG. 2 may be combined with the embodiment illustrated in FIG. 1, and may also be used in combination with other technologies.

FIG. 12 is a block diagram of an exemplified hardware arrangement of an exemplified network node and/or user equipment in accordance with an embodiment of the disclosure. The hardware arrangement 1200 may include a processor 1206. The processor 1206 may be a single processing unit or a plurality of processing units for performing different actions of the flow described herein. The arrangement 1200 may also include an input unit 1202 for receiving signals from other entities and an outputunit 1204 for providing signals to other entities. The input unit 1202 and the outputunit 1204 may be arranged as a single entity or as separate entities.

In addition, the arrangement 1200 may include at least one readable storage medium 1208 in the form of non-volatile or volatile memory suchas electrically erasable programmable read only memory (EEPROM), flash memory, optical disk, Blu-ray disk and/or Hard disk drive. The readable storage medium 1208 may include a computer program 1210 that may include code/computer readable instructions that, when executed by the processor 1206 in the arrangement 1200, cause the hardware arrangement 1200 and/or a device comprising the hardware arrangement 1200 to perform the processes described above in connection with FIG. 1 and/or FIG. 2, and any variations thereof, for example.

Computer program 1210 may be configured as computer program code having, for example, computer program modules 1210A-1210C architecture. Thus, in an exemplified embodiment using the hardware arrangement 1200 as a base station, the code in the computer program of arrangement 1200 may include a module 1210A for determining, based on a number of transport blocks (TBs) that can be scheduled in a downlink transmission to be transmitted and a maximum number of coding block groups (CBGs) dividable in the downlink transmission, a maximum number of CBGs dividable in each TB of the downlink transmission. The code in the computer program may furtherinclude a module 1210B to determine a CBG configuration of CBGs scheduled in a corresponding TB based on a maximum number of CBGs dividable in each TB of the downlink transmission. The code in the computer program may furtherinclude a module 1210C for transmitting downlink control signaling indicating the CBG configuration. However, other modules for performing the various steps of the various methods described herein may also be included in the computer program 1210.

In addition, in an exemplified embodiment where the hardware arrangement 1200 is used as a user equipment, the code in the computer program of arrangement 1200 may include a module 1210A for receiving downlink control signaling. The code in the computer program may furtherinclude a module 1210B for generating an HARQ-ACK codebook according to the downlink control signaling, a reference transport block in a downlink transmission corresponding to the downlink control signaling, and a decoding result for the downlink transmission. The code in the computer program may furtherinclude a module 1210C for feeding back a HARQ-ACK corresponding to the downlink transmission according to the generated HARQ-ACK codebook. However, other modules for performing the various steps of the various methods described herein may also be included in the computer program 1210.

The computer program modules may essentially perform various actions in the flow illustrated in FIG. 1 and/or FIG. 2 to simulate various devices. In other words, when executing different computer program modules in the processor 1206, they may correspond to various different units of the various devices mentioned herein.

Although the code means in the embodiments disclosed above in connection with FIG. 12 are implemented as computer program modules that when executed in the processor 1206 cause the hardware arrangement 1200 to perform the actions described above in connection with FIG. 1 and/or FIG. 2, In alternative embodiments, at least one of the code means may be at least partially implemented as a hardware circuit.

The processor may be a single CPU (Central Processing Unit), butmay also include two or more processing units. For example, the processor may include a general purposemicroprocessor, an instruction set processor and/or related chipsets and/or a special purposemicroprocessor (e.g., an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC)). The processor may also include an on-board memory for caching purposes.The computer program may be carried by a computer program product connected to the processor. The computer program product may include a computer readable medium having a computer program stored thereon. For example, the computer program product may be a flash memory, a random access memory (RAM), a read only memory (ROM), an EEPROM, and in alternative embodiments may be distributed to different computers in the form of memory within the UE Program product.

FIG. 13 is a block diagram illustrating another exemplified hardware arrangement of an exemplified network node and/or user equipment in accordance with an embodiment of the disclosure.

Referring to the FIG. 13, the hardware arrangement 1300 may include a processor 1310, a transceiver 1320 and a memory 1330. However, all of the illustrated components are not essential. The hardware arrangement 1300 may be implemented by more or less components than those illustrated in FIG. 13. In addition, the processor 1310 and the transceiver 1320 and the memory 1330 may be implemented as a single chip according to another embodiment.

The aforementioned components will now be described in detail.

The processor 1310 may include one or more processors or other processing devices that control the proposed function,process, and/or method. Operation of the network node and/or user equipment in accordance with the embodiment of the disclosure may be implemented by the processor 1310.

When the hardware arrangement 1300 performs operation of the network node, the processor 1310 may determine, based on a number of transport blocks (TBs) that can be scheduled in a downlink transmission to be transmitted and a maximum number of coding block groups (CBGs) dividable in the downlink transmission, a maximum number of CBGs dividable in each TB of the downlink transmission. The processor 1310 may determine a CBG configuration of CBGs scheduled in a corresponding TB based on a maximum number of CBGs dividable in each TB of the downlink transmission. The processor 1310 may control the transceiver 1320 to transmit downlink control signaling indicating the CBG configuration.

Meanwhile, when the hardware arrangement 1300 performs operation of the user equipment, the processor 1310 may control the transceiver 1320 to receive downlink control signaling. The processor 1310 may generate an HARQ-ACK codebook according to the downlink control signaling, a reference transport block in a downlink transmission corresponding to the downlink control signaling, and a decoding result for the downlink transmission. The processor 1310 may control the transceiver 1320 to transmit a HARQ-ACK corresponding to the downlink transmission according to the generated HARQ-ACK codebook.

The transceiver 1320 may include a RF transmitter for up-converting and amplifying a transmitted signal, and a RF receiver for down-converting a frequency of a received signal. However, according to another embodiment, the transceiver 1320 may be implemented by more or less components than those illustrated in components.

The transceiver 1320 may be connected to the processor 1310 and transmit and/or receive a signal. The signal may include control information and data. In addition, the transceiver 1320 may receive the signal through a wireless channel and outputthe signal to the processor 1310. The transceiver 1320 may transmit a signal outputfrom the processor 1310 through the wireless channel.

The memory 1330 may store the control information or the data included in a signal obtained by the hardware arrangement 1300. The memory 1330 may be connected to the processor 1310 and store at least one instruction or a protocol or a parameter for the proposed function,process, and/or method. The memory 1330 may include read-only memory (ROM) and/or random access memory (RAM) and/or hard disk and/or CD-ROM and/or DVD and/or other storage devices.

The present disclosure has thus far been described in connection with the preferred embodiments. It should be understood that various other changes, substitutionsand additions can be made by those skilled in the art without departing from the spirit and scope of the present disclosure. Therefore, the scope of the present disclosure is not limited to the specific embodiments described above, butshould be defined by the appended claims.

In addition, the functions described herein as being implemented by purehardware, puresoftware, and/or firmware may also be implemented by using dedicated hardware, a combination of general hardware and software, and the like. For example, functionalitydescribed as being implemented through dedicated hardware (eg, Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs), application specific integrated circuits (ASICs), etc.) may be implemented by general purposehardware suchas a central processing unit (CPU), digital signal processing (DSP)) and software, and vice versa. 

1. A method performed at a user equipment (UE) for transmitting and receiving a signal, the method comprising: receiving code block groups (CBGs) of a transport block (TB) included in a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH); generating a NACK value for each of the CBGs if the each of the CBGs is correctly detected while the TB is not correctly detected; and transmitting hybrid automatic repeat request acknowledgement (HARQ-ACK) information based on the NACK value for the each of the CBGs.
 2. The method of claim 1, wherein if a number of the CBGs (NCBG) is less than a configured maximum number (Nmax CBG), at least one NACK value is further generated based on a difference between the Nmax CBG and the NCBG.
 3. The method of claim 1, further comprising: if the each of the CBGs is correctly decoded in a previous transmission, generating an ACK value for the each of the CBGs.
 4. The method of claim 1, wherein a maximum number of CBGs for generating respective HARQ-ACK information bits per TB is configured by a high-layer signaling.
 5. The method of claim 1, further comprising: determining, based on a value included in downlink control information (DCI), whether CBGs being retransmitted are combinable with the same CBGs previously received or the same CBGs previously received are corrupted.
 6. The method of claim 1, wherein a HARQ-ACK spatial bundling is not applicable when a CBG-based PDSCH reception is configured.
 7. A method performed at a base station for transmitting and receiving a signal, the method comprising: transmitting code block groups (CBGs) of a transport block (TB) included in a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH); and receiving hybrid automatic repeat request acknowledgement (HARQ-ACK) information for each of the CBGs, wherein a NACK value for the each of the CBGs is generated if the each of the CBGs are correctly detected while the TB is not correctly detected and the HARQ-ACK information is generated according to the NACK value.
 8. A user equipment (UE) for transmitting and receiving a signal., comprising: a transceiver; at least one memory storing instructions; and at least one processor configured to execute the stored instructions to: receive code block groups (CBGs) of a transport block (TB) included in a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH); generate a NACK value for each of the CBGs if the each of the CBGs are correctly detected while the TB is not correctly detected; and transmit hybrid automatic repeat request acknowledgement (HARQ-ACK) information based on the NACK value for the each of the CBGs.
 9. The UE of claim 8, wherein if a number of the CBGs (NCBG) is less than a configured maximum number (Nmax_CBG). at least one NACK value is further generated based on a difference between the Nmax_CBG and the NCBG.
 10. The UE of claim 8, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to execute the stored instructions to: if the each of the CBGs is correctly decoded in a previous transmission, generate an ACK value for the each of the CBGs.
 11. The method of claim 8, wherein a maximum number of CBGs for generating respective HARQ-ACK information bits per TB is configured bv a high-laver signaling.
 12. The UE of claim 8, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to execute the stored instructions to: determine, based on a value included in downlink control information (DCI), whether CBGs being retransmitted are combinable with the same CBGs previously received or the same CBGs previously received are corrupted.
 13. The UE of claim 8, wherein a HARQ-ACK snatial bundling is not applicable when a CBG-based PDSCH reception is configured.
 14. A base station for transmitting and receiving a signal, comprising: a transceiver; at least one memory storing instructions; and at least one processor configured to execute the stored instructions to: transmit code block groups (CBGs) of a transport block (TB) included in a physical downlink shared channel (PPSCH); and receive hybrid automatic repeat request acknowledgement (HARQ-ACK) information for each of the CBGs, wherein a NACK value for the each of the CBGs is generated if the each of the CBGs are correctly detected while the TB is not correctly detected and the HARQ-ACK information is generated according to the NACK value.
 15. A computer-readable recording medium on which a program for executing the method of claim 1 is recorded. 